Egypt hopes to make use of its bettering health sector to advertise medical tourism, encouraging residents of different African nations to go to Egypt for remedy.
This subject was mentioned at a Sept 2. meeting between Dr. Ahmed El-Sobky, President of the General Authority for Health Care, and Ambassador Mohamed Khalil, the Secretary-Common of the Egyptian Agency for Partnership for Development (EAPD). Established in 2014, the EAPD is the primary South-South cooperation establishment in Egypt to share technical experience with African international locations.
The EAPD is supporting medical tourism via the initiative “We take care of you in Egypt,” which was launched in September 2020 by the Common Authority for Well being Care. The initiative offers high-quality medical providers for vacationers throughout the hospitals of the excellent medical insurance system.
To this point, this initiative has attracted visitors from six countries: Zambia, Nigeria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, and the Philippines.
Dr. Abdelaty Elmannaee, CEO of the non-governmental group Egyptian Basis of Medical and Environmental Tourism, praised the state’s efforts. Lately, he instructed Al-Monitor, Egypt has “began to deeply enhance Egyptian-African relations in lots of domains, together with the medical realm.”
Most Africans in want of remedy go to Jordan, Turkey, Tunisia, and quite a lot of European international locations, he stated, despite the fact that Egypt is nearer. However now Egypt is heading in the right direction on this discipline, which has the potential to be very profitable.
“Egypt now has the elements that make it a pacesetter within the well being tourism business,” he stated. “It has a wide range of medical cadres in all specialties and cheaper costs in comparison with Europe, along with its high-standard hospitals.”
In 2017, Egypt ranked 28th on this planet for medical tourism, and third within the Arab world. However in recent times, quite a lot of initiatives have been taken to help the sector.
In February 2017, Egypt launched the “Tour n’ Cure” medical tourism initiative, which brings hepatitis C sufferers from all around the world to Egypt for remedy and tourism. This was adopted by the approval of a draft legislation on medical tourism to make sure coordination between the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Well being in December 2018.
In 2019, Egypt declared that it will present hepatitis C testing and free remedy for one million people in 14 African international locations in cooperation with the World Well being Group. In June 2021, Egypt and South Sudan mentioned a project to fight malaria, the main reason for dying in South Sudan, with funds from the EAPD.
One other challenge funded by EAPD will set up a brand new heart facility in Rwanda earlier than the top of the 12 months. In the identical context, Minister of Well being Hala Zayed introduced Aug. 22 {that a} specialized obstetrics and gynecology hospital might be inbuilt Djibouti, along with a nursing college and ambulance unit.
Dr. Elmannaee, who’s a urologist and infertility surgeon, criticized the low participation of the personal sector in selling medical tourism. 5 months in the past, Dr. Elmannaee established a clinic in Sudan protecting completely different specialists, and “I hope that many physicians will do the identical,” he stated.
