The Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday conducting more than 349,775 surgeries until Monday as part of a presidential initiative to shorten the waiting list for state-funded operations. The average number of operations increased from 697 to 1,024 per day, particularly open heart, ophthalmitis, and catheter surgeries, the Health Ministry spokesperson Khaled Mogahed said. He pointed out that the operations performed included 141,239 heart catheters, 21,836 open heart surgeries, 121,112 ophthalmology surgeries, 15,075 neurosurgeries, 15,823 orthopedic surgeries, 19,359 tumor surgeries, 2,613 cochlear implants, 217 kidney transplants, and 318 liver transplants. New specialties were added to the initiative including performing 43 peripheral catheterisation procedures and 31 cerebral catheterisation procedures. All surgeries and medications that patients receive are free of charge. He further added that 12,109 cases were transferred to receive medicinal treatment instead of surgical intervention, ensuring that they do not need any surgical interventions. Mogahed pointed out that within the framework of developing the mechanisms of work within the national project for “waiting lists,” high committees have been formed for most of the specialties covered by the initiative, with the aim to control the operating economics and follow-up for all the initiative's actions, while improving the quality of service provided to citizens. Moreover, Khaled Atef, project coordinator and executive director of the Ministry's patient waiting lists, said that the monthly average of operations in 2019 amounted to 20,630 operations.
