The Magdi Yacoub Foundation (MYF) has pledged to help establish the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Unit al-Nasr public hospital in Port Said on the the northern tip of the Suez Canal, Health Minister Hala Zayed confirmed. Dr Zayed explained that the move comes in response to directives by President Sisi that governmental institutions should join hands with non-governmental organisations to improve health services by benefitting of the expertise of NGOs.
Dr Zayed met renowned heart surgeon, the Egyptian British Sir Magdi Yacoub, and a team of specialists from MYF to discuss the establishment of the new unit in Nasr Hospital. They also discussed the possibility of signing a protocol of cooperation between the Ministry of Health and the MYF to train health service providers in the State-owned health insurance hospital for children. Efficient, well-equipped health services should ensure that waiting lists for heart surgeries are reduced, Dr Zayed pointed out. She said that complex cases that need high expertise might be referred to the MYF Aswan Hospital.
The MYF was founded in Aswan in 2009 by Sir Magdi Yacoub. It offers top class medical services to heart patients of all Egypt and the region free of charge; it operates through donations. Last May the foundation stone was laid for a new heart centre in Aswan, that will be annexed to the old hospital and will open next September. According to Sir Magdi, the new centre will have the capacity to receive 80,000 patients a year in its outpatient clinics, and to conduct surgery on some 12,000 a year. This is three times the capacity of the present hospital, he said, stressing that there is a need to focus on children and newborns who suffer heart problems. In addition to treating heart patients, the centre aims to produce a new generation of scientists, doctors, nurses, and medical technicians of world-class professional standard.
Watani International
19 June 2018