By ; Basel Khaled  - Nahla Makled

The Ministers of Higher Education and Communications witness the launch of the first phase of the university hospital automation project

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, witnessed the launch of the first phase of the university hospital automation project, in a Cairo hotel.

At the beginning of his speech, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research assumes a societal responsibility for the health of citizens, represented by the university hospitals located in the various governorates of the Republic; To serve a wide segment of Egyptian citizens.

Dr. Abdul Ghaffar said that university hospitals have proven efficiency and professionalism in the Corona pandemic, and contributed at the state level to treating the injured through isolation hospitals and treatment protocols.

The Minister of Higher Education indicated that the number of university hospitals is 115, which can be increased soon, in addition to the presence of 650 hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health, all of which contribute to serving the Egyptian citizen, pointing to the directives of the President of the Republic on the importance of digitizing all health services.

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar stressed that linking university hospitals as well as hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health will contribute to following up the patient and directing him to the nearest hospital, thanks to the mechanized infrastructure.

He pointed out that the project aims to operate the first phase of university hospitals (79 hospitals), pointing out that the outputs of this project are a national goal that we have always sought to implement, stressing the importance of having a satisfactory map at the level of all governorates of the Republic, which makes it easier for those in charge of treatment protocols to choose the appropriate protocol according to the patient's history.

On his part, Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, stressed the importance of the project, as it is of great importance to citizens who receive health care in Egypt. Where the project aims to automate the health care process and create an integrated medical file for every citizen through which he can receive health care from all university hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Higher Education, and it is also planned to be linked to the health insurance project implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Population Thus, the Egyptian citizen will have one health file through which he can receive health services and care from any port close to him or from any port referred to him by the treating doctor, and thus the integration and interdependence of the ports that follow each of the Ministry of Health, Higher Education and Scientific Research; Noting that the unified health file will contribute to a qualitative leap in the quality of health services and their facilitation for the citizen, in addition to rationalizing expenditures and improving mechanisms for managing the health care process in order to provide an outstanding service at the lowest cost to citizens.

Dr. Amr added that the project includes the process of managing the health system inside hospitals with the full management activities from purchases, organizing and distributing doctors’ schedules, linking all hospital departments, the referral system from one department to another, and from a general practitioner to specialists, according to the patient’s needs, as well as providing data and statistics that contribute to the process Practical research and make it easier for researchers to obtain the data required by their scientific research while protecting the privacy of citizens' data.

The Minister referred to the various areas of cooperation between the Ministries of Communications and Information Technology, Higher Education and Scientific Research, as part of the efforts made to build an integrated digital society. A few months ago, the first phase of the mechanized testing project in the medical sector was completed in all public universities, where work is currently underway in the second phase of the project, as well as joint cooperation in the Digital Egypt Creativity Centers, implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology within universities, in addition to The opening of the Egypt Informatics University.

On his part, Dr. Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of University Hospitals, indicated that the university hospital automation system project was divided into two phases. patients annually, adding that the second phase includes the automation of 9 universities with a total of 65 hospitals with a bed capacity of 20 thousand beds to serve 8 million and 500 thousand patients, stressing the support of the political leadership and the Egyptian government for the project to automate university hospitals for the benefit of the Egyptian citizen.

Major General Engineer Hazem Mohamed Saafan, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Delta Electronic Systems, pointed out the importance of the partnership with the Supreme Council of University Hospitals and Vodafone Egypt; To provide high-quality services to university hospitals that serve millions of patients annually, emphasizing the activation of these services as soon as possible, to raise the efficiency of health care provided to citizens, and to increase the number of beneficiaries of university hospitals.

For his part, Mr. Mohamed Abdullah, CEO of Vodafone Egypt, expressed his happiness to participate in the digitization of medical services in university hospitals, as well as to contribute to the development of the system of services provided to citizens in various parts of the country, noting that the company is a partner of many government agencies and bodies in Important projects, as they provide a number of technological solutions and digital services, most notably the participation in the project to automate the universal health insurance system.

On the sidelines of launching the first phase of university hospital automation, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar and Dr. Amr Talaat, the ceremony of exchanging the partnership contract between the Supreme Council of University Hospitals, Vodafone Egypt, and Delta Electronic Systems; To implement the digital transformation system and automate university hospitals throughout the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini, President of Ain Shams University, Dr. Hesham Farouk, Assistant Minister for Digital Transformation, Dr. Muhammad Al-Sharkawi, the assistant minister for finance and investment, the project executives in each hospital, a number of the heads of the Ministry of Health hospitals, and representatives of the executing company (Vodafone Egypt Alliance) witnessed the events.