President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi discussed on Saturday with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Minister of Health Hala Zayed, the preparations for implementing the national medical insurance system and the latest updates regarding finishing the waiting lists, according to a statement from Bassam Rady, the presidency spokesperson.
The meeting also discussed the latest updates in the national survey for combating hepatitis C (HCV), in order to benefit from the outcomes of the survey in studying the state’s future plans to save the people’s health.
During the meeting, Al-Sisi stressed the necessity of developing the healthcare system as the start of implementing the national medical insurance system, as well as investing in improving the capabilities of the staff who are working on these issues.
Al-Sisi added further that the national medical insurance system will be an unprecedented step in the history of the Egyptian health sector, and the first step in the real reformation of the Egyptian health system.
For her part, Zayed briefed the president about the ongoing procedures for developing the national healthcare system. She also added that more than 2 million people have visited the centres for the HCV survey.
In her past meeting with Al-Sisi, the Minister of Health pointed out that more than 18,000 patients were cured in frame of the national initiative for ending waiting lists, exceeding the number of patients in the mail lists (17,000 patients) in two months, amid the initiative that will last for three years.
Egypt has achieved a significant progress in curing HCV, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), after curing about two million patients in the country, with the lowest cost of medicine worldwide $78, which opened up the prospect of medical tourism in the country.
According to a recent study published in Nature Scientific Reports journal, Egypt is the most affected nation by HCV, and needs a comprehensive characterisation of HCV epidemiology to inform the scale-up of treatment, and prevention programs.
Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Waly, Abbas Kamel the chief of General Intelligence Service, Hesham Badawy, the chief of the Accountability State Authority, and Sherif Seif El-Din, chief of the Administrative Control Authority, also attended the meeting.
