PAL EGYPT EXPERIENCE

1. PALEGYPT EXPERIENCE Dr MAGDY FAWZY PAL FOCAL PERSON

2. Steps taken till now

3. Formulation of PAL Task Force, it included • PAL Focal person from NTP • NTP Drug management officer for coordination of procurement & provision of essential drugs. • NTP surveillance coordinator for collection of information from outpatients’ health units. • NTP supervision coordinator. • Primary health care focal point. • Health sector reform focal point.

4. Terms of references of this Task Force • Preparing to train primary health and chest units' physicians in integrated case management. • Ensuring the supply of essential drugs and equipment (e.g. peak flow meters and spirometers). • Delivering educational messages on prevention of respiratory illnesses and adherence to treatment of TB and CRDs. • Expanding the information system so that it covers not only TB but also prevalent chronic respiratory diseases. • Monitoring activities and assessing progress in implementing the strategy.

5. Formulation of the national work group NWG, This included • Minister's consultant for chest diseases (professor and chief of chest department in Ain Shams University). • Minister's consultant for training and human resources development (professor and chief department of Diagnostic radiology in Cairo University). • General Director for Chest diseases and TB in MOHP. • PAL focal person.

6. In addition, we add faculties from universities in each governorate where implementing PAL starts to train physicians.

7. Terms of references: • Elaborate the technical and operational guidelines as well as the training materials to implement these guidelines. • Coordinate training of the primary health and chest units' physicians. • Beginning a pilot phase to test the guidelines

8. Developing and reviewing the technical guideline. • Developing the training material depending the technical guideline. • Starting a piloting phase in one governorate to test the guidelines and gathering information from the recipient physicians before starting training and implementation on a wide scale.

9. We started testing the guideline in Monofia governorate. • Monofia governorate was chosen because it is one of the governorates where family physician system is already implemented all over. • The national working group decided to implement PAL in governorates where family physician is already in place. • Family physician system will be implemented all over the country with the coming two years.

10. One of the great obstacles we met is the rapid turnover of primary health care physicians. • This will be greatly reduced after full implementation of the family physicians system and this was a second justification to start with governorates where family physicians system already implemented.

11. In Monofia, a meeting was held with the staff of chest department in Monofia University to introduce the training material and the technical guideline. • This meeting included: • General Directorate of Chest diseases department in ministry of health and population, who is the executive director of NTP in the mean time, • PAL focal point, • The chief of chest department, • Staff of the department, • The GCT and • The chief of primary health service in the governorate.

12. The concept of PAL was introduced and the technical guideline and the training material were delivered to prepare for training of the primary health and chest physicians in Monofia governorate.

13. A data base of the primary health units' physicians was prepared by the chief of the primary health service department in Monofia governorate. • We will include the permanent physicians mainly. • During this training sessions, the technical guideline will be also tested and opinions of the trainees of its implementation will be gathered.

14. THANK YOU