Ahmed Samir, the Delegated Minister for the Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD), along with Hassan Abdallah, President of the Board of Trustees for the NGO Wafaa le Masr, and Hassan Khairy, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Qasr al-Aini Hospital, launched the first stage of the Abu Al-Rashid Al-Mounira Children's Hospital project to begin automating patient records in Egypt's public hospitals. Samir said that development of medical information systems represented a huge step forward and would help improve the quality of patient services. The new project would seek to replace all paper documents containing information on patients with electronic files. The project would seek to simplify data retrieval, and speed up the process by which patient data was recorded while reducing the amount of errors committed by doctors. It also seeks to establish complete medical archives that would link hospital wings to those located in facilities elsewhere throughout the province, with the aim of fostering cooperation between various hospitals. Other targets include developing information systems used to provide services to doctors, as well as improving the organisation of medicine and hospital equipment stock. “The cooperation protocol between the Ministry and Wafaa le Masr reflects the keenness with which both sides seek to improve the level of service provided in public hospitals, and restructure the advanced medical services system made available to citizens," said Samir. Adding: “The implementation of these new standards and methods will help improve the quality of medical services provided to citizens, by putting in place specific standards and necessary conditions to better monitor, regulate, and improve public hospitals." “Our organisation seeks to establish a healthcare model in Egypt by applying international standards to local hospitals," said Abdallah. “This latest measure reflects the continuation of a project launched back in 2004, one that was based on the belief that Egypt deserves the highest level of health and education services for its citizens." He added that Wafaa le Masr's participation in the project made it clear that what was truly needed was not just participation and aid in providing resources, but also the cooperation of all parties involved in reviewing the progress of the program itself. “What distinguishes this project is the cooperation between the public and private sectors along with a number of civil society organisations. When one combines the efforts of the information technology, health and banking sectors for the purpose of providing efficient patient services, this is indeed a force to be reckoned with," Abdallah added.
