President's "waiting lists" initiative carried out 256,000 surgeries

CAIRO - 14 October 2019: The Ministry of Health announced Monday the completion of 256, 264 surgical operations as part of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi's initiative launched in July 2018 to eliminate waiting lists.

According to Executive Director of the Waiting Lists operations room Khaled Atef, cardiac catheterizations topped the performed surgeries by 44.3 percent followed by ocular surgeries by 33.7 percent.

Minister Hala Zayed made a decision to redistribute the number of surgeries allocated to each hospital taking part in the initiative. Those include hospitals affiliated with the Police, the Armed Forces and NGOs, the International Medical Center, Wadi Al Nile Hospital, and specialized hospitals. Once the health insurance hospitals are renovated, they will be part of the initiative.

The recent move will also inhibit the build-up of other waiting lists, particularly those pertinent to open heart surgeries, heart catheterizations, and eye surgeries. The minister also instructed the committee in charge to follow up with patients who are on waiting lists but did not come to the designated hospitals to receive treatment.