Resource Type: Report
Authors: Health Systems 20/20
Published: 9/1/2012

Resource Description:

“Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) is leading a decades-long (1997-2018) Health Sector Reform Program that has five guiding principles: universality, quality, equity, efficiency, and sustainability. A major part of the reform is to move service delivery from a vertical model of independent health care programs to an integrated Family Health Model (FHM). The transition entails changing the manner in which services are contracted and financed and making the social insurance system more sustainable. At the same time, there is diminished donor assistance to Egypt, which could affect program performance. It is within this context that this Preventive Health Sector Assessment (PSA) was undertaken.

In consultation with the MOHP, three major programs (Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, and Infection Control [IC]) were selected for study. IC, once a stand-alone program, remains an important component for accreditation under the FHM. In 2001, the MOHP, in collaboration with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 and the World Health Organization (WHO) and with financing from the U.S. Agency for International Development, developed a national strategic plan to reform IC with the objectives of improving quality of care and reducing transmission of hospital-acquired infections. The plan included setting up an organizational structure and IC guidelines, training health care workers, promoting occupational safety, and establishing a system for monitoring and evaluation.

The purpose of the current PSA is to evaluate the processes and performance of all three of the above programs to understand how well the program structures and processes have worked to achieve program objectives, and to assess program needs going forward.”