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Ministry of Health Completes 145,307 Surgeries of ‘Waiting Lists’ Initiative

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Ministry of Health Completes 145,307 Surgeries of ‘Waiting Lists’ Initiative
written by
Cairo 360

Have you ever wondered if there was anything you could do to live a bit longer? Well, we have, and we discovered that many types of research indicate that eating healthy foods can help extend your life and improve your health. This leads us to the keyword for today’s article: Health. 

Two days ago, Daily News announced the Ministry of Health’s successful completion of more than 145,307 surgical operations, according to a statement by the Minister of Health, Hala Zayed, last week. All free of charge! This was originally part of the president’s initiative to reduce the number of urgent waiting lists that was launched in July 2018. Let’s take a look back down memory lane to witness how such a project turned from a simple idea to a life-changing reality over the past ten months.  

From July 6th until the 15th of August, 2018, reports from the Minister of Higher Education, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar stated that 3,714 various surgeries were performed at the university hospitals. This miraculous milestone was achieved via several factors, including the extension of working hours for all the medics at Ain Shams, Cairo, Mansoura, Zagazig, and Assuit university hospitals, as well as working on weekends to treat supplementary cases.

Earlier last month, Enterprise mentioned that the state paid out 1.4 billion Egyptian pounds to cover the cost of more than 126,000 surgeries in the first phase of the program, which will continue for the next 3-5 years until the forthcoming national healthcare program can pick up the slack.  

We then fast forward five months, to the 30th of January, 2019. It was then that Dr Hala Zayed declared the launch of the second phase of the presidential initiative according to the official website of the Cabinet of Ministers. She also stated that the development of a new comprehensive health insurance project contributed significantly to fulfilling their current target to develop the method of operation and follow-ups. 

Two months later, the accumulative number of treated patients reached a staggering total of 118,000 patients, including 60,048 heart catheterisations, 10,865 open heart surgeries, 27,413 eye surgeries, 4,034 neurosurgeries, and 5,156 bone surgeries. In addition, the ministry is expanding the capacity of public hospitals and reallocating the patients among the various governorates to alleviate the overly crowded ones. It was said that the costs of transportation would be covered by charity NGOs, Al Orman, and Zakat and Sadakat House.

Which finally brings us to this month! Khaled Mogahed, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said that the average number of daily operations has increased from 697 to 1,024 to prevent the buildup of additional waiting lists. The formerly mentioned 145,307 surgeries include 7,422 tumour surgeries, 957 cochlear implants, and 139 kidney transplants.

At this rate, we can optimistically expect thousands and thousands more in the near future!  

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