More than 50,000 approvals for state-financed medical treatment have been suspended, according to official documents produced by the Health Ministry's Specialized Medical Councils. The total value of the suspended approvals amounts to more than LE85 million. 6,000 approvals were given only last week and their total value is estimated at LE6 million. Hesham Shiha, head of the Specialized Medical Councils, anticipates that the total value of cancelled approvals will rise to LE100 million over the coming weeks. In statements yesterday, Shiha said that joint committees, consisting of members of the Specialized Medical Councils and the financial and administrative affairs department of the Health Ministry, have discovered that most of these approvals were granted by public hospitals. However, the performance of private, investment, and university hospitals is monitored regularly, he added. According to Shiha, the inspection committees have found out that the suspended approvals include cases where diseases were not diagnosed properly or where excessive allocations were made. In other cases, approval was given for a procedure that was later replaced with another. Inspection committees are still visiting hospitals to uncover any further violations, he added. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
