CAIRO, August 26, 2018 – President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has given directives to the Health and Population Ministry to encourage the growth of domestic production of medicine especially including those that enjoy high quality, good reputation and exportability. The directives to this effect came during President Sisi's meeting on Sunday with the Minister of Health and Population, Dr Hala Zayed, Presidency Spokesman Bassam Radi said in a statements. In other directives during the same meeting, President Sisi called for the ministry to widen the comprehensive medical survey for citizens and bring to an end the waiting lists of patients in need of emergency surgeries and critical medical intervention, Spokesman Radi said. The president also directed the ministry to increase the pharmacies' stocks of milk formula and ensure the availability of medicines now in short supply, Spokesman Radi said. With regard to the comprehensive health insurance initiative which will have Port Said Governorate as its launching point, President Sisi called for ensuring full harmonisation between the initiative's system and the automation structure followed by all institutions of the state. From Port Said, the initiative is planned to cover the Suez Canal governorates and will then reach out to all other governorates, the presidency spokesman said. President Sisi also called for benefiting from the survey now under way to detect hepatitis C cases in expanding the scope of the effort in such a manner that would cover other diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity. The aspired expansion of the survey would reach out to nearly 50 million citizens, thereby turning the effort into the world's largest medical survey and also the biggest such medical undertaking in history, Spokesman Radi said in his statements. The first stage of President Sisi's initiative to survey hepatitis C cases will cover nine governorates and is due to start in October, the spokesman said, adding that the second stage would will include 11 governorates and will start in December, following which the third and final stage would reach out to all remaining governorates and will be completed by April 2019, the presidency spokesman said.
