Egypt’s Free-Surgery Initiative Passes 3.34 Million Procedures

Egypt’s national waiting-list initiative has delivered 3,342,772 free surgical procedures since its launch in July 2018, the Ministry of Health and Population announced. The total reflects a large expansion of access to urgent and critical care without charging patients.

The programme covers heart, orthopaedic, ophthalmic and cancer surgery, as well as cerebral and cardiac catheter procedures, neurosurgery, kidney and liver transplants, cochlear implants and peripheral catheter interventions. Patients are assigned centrally to hospitals according to available capacity, a system intended to speed treatment and prevent new queues from building up.

The ministry said the initiative’s hotline has handled 418,155 calls since it began operating. It also reported follow-up on 391,018 cases between July 1, 2023, and August 8, 2026.

Participating hospitals are receiving modern equipment and continued staff training, while the programme’s electronic system is being developed to improve patient-data tracking and transfers between facilities. Although the published figures do not establish that surgical waiting lists have been eliminated, they document more than 3.34 million completed procedures across a broad range of specialties, all provided at no cost to patients.