The Minister of Health and Population, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, stated that the assignment of pharmacists will be according to the actual need and not all graduates starting next year. He said: “I cannot bring all the graduates to their homes. This is not my job.” Abdel Ghaffar also spoke about the crisis in appointing pharmacists in response to the requests of a number of representatives regarding the appointment of pharmacists and calls to take into account the geographical dimension and the issuance of appointment decisions from the same governorate to which the graduate belongs, especially for females. He explained, “Assignment is like an army uniform.” He continued, “I will not know how to place all the girls near their homes or families, in needy governorates and others that are not.” This came during Abdel Ghaffar’s participation in a meeting of the House of Representatives’ Planning and Budget Committee, which discusses the Ministry’s final account for the financial year 2022/2023.
The Minister of Health and Population, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, revealed the cost of treatment at the state’s expense, which reached 17 billion pounds annually, to serve 3.3 million citizens annually, adding that the cost of implementing the presidential initiative to eliminate waiting lists amounted to 4.7 billion pounds during that period, and approximately 481 thousand citizens benefited from it. Pointing out that the cost of presidential initiatives amounted to 32 billion pounds distributed among 11 presidential initiatives, such as eliminating the C virus. He also explained that the total budget for the fiscal year 2022/2024 amounted to 3.45 billion after strengthening the Ministry of Finance throughout the year, indicating that the disbursement rate was estimated at about 97%, which is higher than the previous year.
The Minister of Health also reviewed dozens of projects in the governorates that are being implemented, such as Matrouh General Hospital, Sidi Barani, El Dabaa, Ras El Hekma, and El Alamein, all of which are being developed. For his part, Representative Yasser Omar, Undersecretary of the Plan and Budget Committee, commented, “Assiut Governorate fell from the accounts of the Ministry of Health,” and the Chairman of the Plan and Budget Committee, Representative Fakhri Al-Feki, commented, explaining the impact of the exchange rate on providing needs, and said, “When the price is unified in the foreseeable future, we will later discuss the situation in The foreseeable future
He said, “I hope that when we move the exchange rate, as it appears,” he asked, “Is it possible to imagine that when the price is announced, unification will be achieved? Is it possible, as was the case in the past when there were 3 important commodities, wheat for livelihood, medicine, and fuel? Is it possible for the central bank to work? Price, in agreement with the Fund, a second, lower price for a certain period to move beyond this stage. “The cost of spending on preventive services and various vaccines amounted to 1.3 billion pounds.” The Minister of Health and Population confirmed that the ministry was excluded from the Council of Ministers’ decision to stop completing projects whose implementation rates did not exceed 70%.
Abdel Ghaffar said, “In governorates that were out of service, we had to go and return them to the tracks, and also prepare for the comprehensive health insurance system, and the Decent Life projects that establish the insurance system,” pointing to the focus on the governorates of Damietta, Beheira, Matrouh, North Sinai, and Minya during this period. For his part, Representative Mustafa Salem, Undersecretary of the Planning and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, asked the leaders of the Ministry of Health about the type of loans, their value, and their uses. The Ministry’s financial official responded to the question, but he was unable to respond to the value of the Swiss, French, and Japanese loan by saying, “I don’t know.
” Representative Mustafa Salem responded by saying: “Again, you say, ‘I don’t know,’” the Minister of Health intervened, commenting, “We will send a statement about it immediately.”
The representative of the representatives’ plan continued the minister’s plan, indicating that in June 2022, we met with the minister in the health committee and presented to you the health problems in the centers of Sohag Governorate, and you presented to us the situation with the time plan for solutions.
In February 2023, my colleagues, Representative Nashat Fawad and Representative Ibrahim Khalifa, submitted briefing requests regarding Tama, Tahta, and Juhayna Hospitals. In March 2023, I withdrew the work of Tama Hospital from the company assigned to it, and the work was assigned to a new company. In October 2023, you visited Sohag Governorate and Juhayna Hospital and opened them, but unfortunately The implementation situation there is bad and it does not provide the appropriate medical service. The same is true of Tahta Hospital. I opened it, but there are problems with the human resources and doctors, and it does not fulfill the desired role despite spending 300 million on it. It promised us during the visit to supply 10 incubators and a catheterization device, which has not been implemented yet, and the minister instructed him to supply the incubators immediately. and the catheter device as soon as possible.
The Minister of Health and Population affirmed that cooperation with the Central Bank is in full swing to provide hard currency to enable the completion of health projects with the devices and equipment they require, as well as some medicines for which there are no alternatives, saying: “We know that there are some promises for the completion of projects, but they are… It is linked to the availability of budgets and budget support, and some of these projects relate to the external part of equipment and devices, and most health sectors depend on hard currency, and we cooperate with the Central Bank to provide it, and it is a public issue and there is no negligence in saving.”
Abdel Ghaffar said in a recent address to the representatives, “I know that you have questions about some projects and cases of treatment delays, but we work under the available circumstances and according to priorities. For example, the comparison is whether we should buy an MRI device for a hospital while the same device is located nearby, or heart support for critical cases.”
