Egypt’s Health Ministry Halves ICU Wait Time to 13 Hours

The Ministry of Health announced that the average waiting time for an intensive care unit (ICU) bed has dropped from 26 hours in June 2024 to 13 hours in June 2025. Waiting times for neonatal incubators also improved, falling from 20 hours to 7. According to ministry spokesperson Dr. Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the improvements come as part of the “Egypt Cares” project to speed up critical care admissions. Over the past year, more than 560,000 ICU requests and 136,000 incubator requests were processed through the central coordination system. The ministry credited initiatives such as the “Every Second Counts” program for heart attack patients, which has treated more than 17,600 cases across 45 hospitals, as well as expansions in emergency infrastructure. This includes adding 362 adult ICU beds, 144 pediatric ICU beds, and 252 incubators, alongside six new units in chest hospitals. To support these efforts, the ministry has also expanded access to essential medical supplies, providing 18,000 artificial knee and hip joints, 28,000 angioplasty balloons, and 25,000 heart stents, among other critical equipment.