Egypt's House of Representatives approves in principle private sector's management of public hospitals

CAIRO – 19 May 2024: The House of Representatives approved in principle Sunday the draft law submitted by the government on delegating the management of public healthcare facilities to the private sector.

The goal is enhancing the quality of service. Yet, the private sector will not be allowed to run specific types of facilities that are healthcare units providing basic services, family planning units, blood donation and plasma collection units, as well as vaccination processes.

There will be a percentage of medical services provided by the establishment privatized allocated to the beneficiaries of public and universal health insurance, and patients who were granted free of charge treatment funded by the state's treasury.

The bill also obliges the private administrator to keep at least 25 percent of the current medics in a given establishment as long as they are not willing to quit. It also allows hiring foreign medics and lab technicians as long as their share does not exceed 25 percent of the staff.

The bill will be studied by a number of parliamentary committees, and maybe amended, as the conditions pertinent to the transfer of the medical facility back to the government after the conclusion of the operations contract are missing. Then, another voting will take place so that it will be either passed or dismissed.