According to Egypt Today a draft law on medical tourism has been approved by the House of Representatives’ Tourism and Civil Aviation Committee. It will encourage more coordination between the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Health in this sector.
The committee’s deputy Amr Sedki said the draft law will ensure coordination between the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Health in the emerging field of medical tourism. He said Egypt has around 1,300 medical sites, but they do not have resorts; hence, the ministries should cooperate to develop these sites.
The ministers of foreign affairs and aviation have worked on establishing a mechanism to issue medical tourism visas to foreign patients for the first time in Egypt, an official source said in March.
Ayman Abdel Aziz, secretary general of the newly formed technical committee for medical tourism, said 20 hospitals will receive patients from abroad. A guide to the sites offering medical tourism services will be issued, added Abdel Aziz, who works under the supervision of the cabinet.
The medical tourism program will offer heart, orthopedic, eye and other surgeries in the first phase for 15 Arab and African countries, Abdel Aziz explained.
In February 2017, Egypt launched the ‘Tour and Cure’ medical tourism initiative. The initiative offers treatment to HCV infected patients from all over the world, offering a treatment program at a lower cost. Dental tourism to Egypt is also being promoted, based on relative costs given the low price of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar.
Egypt is also marketing its mineral springs as a therapeutic tourism attraction, including such sites as Wadi Assal (Honey Valley) in Ras Sudr, Hammam Moussa, and Hammam Pharaon.For an independent analysis of medical tourism potential in Egypt, visit the IMTJ Country Profile.
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