The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has completed the first stage of developing the national network for faster medical services for patients.
An official source at the MCIT said that the project was meant to streamline diagnostics and treatment services for citizens, bringing the average wait time from two months to 48 hours.
The source added that they now have SMS messaging services in order to follow up on procedures that require aftercare, giving the patient the option not to go to hospital.
This is in addition to providing remote diagnostic services like the new video conferencing system for harder to reach locations in the country. This allows doctors to communicate with patients without the patient needing to travel far distances to reach the hospital. Once a health care provider reaches an official diagnosis, the decision is issued to the patient easily and conveniently, according to the diagnosis.
This also helped in eliminating mediation, by quickly giving only beneficiaries access to the service.
According to the official, the project also utilises a citizen’s national ID number during follow up in order to ensure that the exchange is not reimbursed under a different name and prevent having several separate files for the same patient.
He said that the project was based on establishing a national network for treatment by linking the specialised medical council, which is the body concerned with issuing treatment decisions, with hospitals and centres providing medical services
The project provides the possibility of submitting applications from governorates. The project also provides follow-up for treatment decisions with the aim of controlling and organising the hospitalisation process.
The source said that the project’s main information centre is fully ready. It is located at the headquarters of medical councils in Nasr City. A backup headquarters was also established at the Ministry of Health.
In addition, 40 sub-sites were connected through a VPN network distributed throughout the governorates, in addition to linking 160 government hospitals across the country.
After the development, the project helped to quickly obtain treatment decisions for citizens by treating 5,000 treatment requests per day and reducing the decision-making period to 48 hours.
The source revealed that the second phase of the project already under way, which includes establishing an automated system for follow up services and expanding the use of SMS messaging. Patients will also be able to inquire about services and the organisation of e-archives.
The second stage also includes the maintenance of the main centre and the backup centre for the project for a period of 5 years. It also includes the completion of the automation of hospital treatment decisions and treatment plan , along with the development of a file management system attached to patient treatment requests.
In addition, a mechanism was developed using SMS to allow patients to follow-up on their requests and provide technical support for the information system for five years.
