EGYPT – Acting Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar met the Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Egypt Jeremy Hopkins to discuss strengthening cooperation between the ministry and the organization.
The honorable delegates discussed plans to address the mental health challenges faced by children especially for those who suffer from autism and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) for the next 5 years starting from 2023.
The partnership includes training medical teams to deal with children and educating their families on the correct ways to deal with them in coordination with the General Secretariat for Mental Health and Addiction Treatment.
The health officials also discussed restructuring the primary health care system in Egypt to meet the standards of the comprehensive health insurance system within the UNICEF’s plan.
They further discussed plans to activate the electronic system for family planning services and vaccinations for children in Egypt.
Moreover, the meeting was an opportunity to address ways of cooperating amid the coronavirus pandemic by providing preventive supplies for health sector workers, providing refrigerators for the transfer of vaccines and vaccines as well as organizing training workshops for medical teams.
Egypt’s health insurance system covers additional 5 million people
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population announced that it has added 15 million citizens in its comprehensive health insurance system which currently covers 69 percent of the Egyptian population of 102 million.
The move was part of Egypt’s efforts to improve its citizens’ quality of life and standard of living by bringing all Egyptians under the umbrella of the social and health insurance system towards achieving Egypt’s Vision 2030.
Egypt’s Acting Minister of Health Khaled Abdel Ghaffar revealed that the country’s public treasury will cover one-fourth of the program’s estimated costs, public shares in the stock market will cover half of the expenditures while the rest of funding will come from other government sources.
Farmers, taxi drivers, and seasonal workers, including fishermen, miners, quarries, contracting, transportation and shipping workers are among the newly added people to the health insurance system.
Egypt activates e-model to share citizen’s views on medical services
In more recent developments, a new electronic model that allows citizens to share their views about medical services they get at Health Ministry facilities has been launched and activated in Egypt.
The model is expected to serve as an electronic platform to share health ideas and suggestions of youth across Egypt through a link that directs youth to the health initiative’s main page.
The Health Ministry will assess all the innovative health ideas to determine whether or not they could be implemented on the ground and owners of the ideas can participate in implementing them in real life under supervision of bodies concerned.
Egyptian Health Ministry Spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar announced that the e-model also allows medical school students and workers at health directorates to post their ideas about how to upgrade the health system in Egypt.
“Activating this model reflects keenness of the Egyptian government to invest in the ideas of youth with the aim to upgrade health services,” Spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar added.
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