Improving Health System in Egypt: Perspectives of Physicians

Introduction: There are well-identified shortcomings in the health system at the policy level. However, there is no adequate information at the implementation level, especially at the level of health services providers. Objectives: The goal of the study is to improve the health system in Egypt through utilizing information derived from the perspectives of the health service providers towards the health system. Methodology: a health system research exploratory study was conducted in Cairo governorate. A convenient sample of 225 physicians, working in MOH and private facilities, were included. Results: More than half of physicians agree that there are shortages in the health system resources: (70.6%), (53.7%) and (25%) in private, secondary health care (SHC) and primary health care (PHC), respectively, P=0.04. (71.2%) and (49.7%) say there is bias in human recruitment and no clear job description, respectively, with no significant difference by place of work. Moreover, about (66.2%) and (57.6%) of all participants physicians, respectively, say that there is neither supervision for their performance nor records with performance indicators. Subsequently, (58.9%) of the physicians see that the health status of the Egyptian is:”unaccepted”. Conclusion and recommendations: The health care system still faces multiple challenges in improving health status of all Egyptians. There are shortages in health care resources, at different levels of care. Physicians see that organizational structure and management of the system still need reform. The distribution and quality of human resources need to be improved, equally. Physicians were aware of system problems’. For that, their opinions should guide the policy makers for setting effective strategies to improve the health system