Armed Forces Medical Service Department (Egypt)

Armed Forces Medical Service Department
إدارة الخدمات الطبية
Country	Egypt
Branch	Egyptian Army
Role	Military medicine
Commanders
Current commander	Major General Hisham El-Sheshtawy

The Medical Services Department of the Armed Forces and the Egyptian Army Medical Corps are the departments responsible for the hospitals and medical facilities of the Egyptian Armed Forces including the Army medical schools.

The need for Army medical services became apparent to Muhammad Ali during a campaign due to mass attrition. The French doctor, Antoine Clot, became the Chief Doctor of the Army. Clot persuaded Ali to established the first Army School of Medicine in Abu Zaabal in 1827. The first of its kind in the region, it was later expanded with Pharmacy and Midwifery schools.^[1]

In the war in Afghanistan, the Medical Corps opened the Egyptian Field Hospital at Bagram in Afghanistan to treat civilians.^[2]

Large number of military hospitals are active across Egypt.^[3] Many of these centers accept civilian patients.^[4] Cairo's Bridge Military Hospital (opened 2011; new additions planned through 2019)^{[needs update]}, is part of an ongoing effort by the Egyptian Army to offer cutting-edge treatment and patient care. The facility has 840 beds spread between major surgery, respiratory disease, and emergency units. Smaller specialized centers in dental, cardiac, and ophthalmological care account for an additional 205 beds.^[3]

Egypt's Military Medical Academy was founded in 1979 with the purpose of educating and training medical officers in all branches of Egypt's armed forces.^[5] The facility is located on Ihsan Abdul Quddus Street in Cairo. It is associated with the Armed Forces Medical College, founded in 1827.^[6] This was the Middle East's first modern school of medicine and was a product of Egypt's newly established Military Department of Health during the administration of Muhammad Ali Pasha.^[7]

At a press conference in February 2014 by Egyptian Gen. Ibrahim Abdel-Atti, chief of the medical branch, falsely claimed that the Egyptian Army had "defeated AIDS... with a rate of 100%" as well as hepatitis C. Abdel-Atti claimed to construct a method to extract the disease and break it into amino acids, "so that the virus becomes nutrition for the body instead of disease." It is said^{[by whom?]} that this treatment process could take anywhere between 20 days and 6 months to cure having no side effects. Egypt intends to delay exporting their new technology to generate medical tourism into the country. The claims were eventually confirmed to be false.^{[8][9][10][unreliable source?]}

The Medical Services Department runs about 48 fixed military hospitals, listed below.

The Army's Medical Corps may have 27 Field Medical Battalions (1st to 27th); 107 Field Medical Companies (201st to 308th); and possibly some hospital barges.^{[citation needed]}

Source is the Egyptian Ministry of Defence site:^[11]

• https://egyptdefreview.wordpress.com/2017/09/08/egyptian-medical-corps-where-are-egypts-combat-medics/
• https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5t1nb3mq&chunk.id=d0e496&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e496&brand=ucpress
• http://www.mma.edu.eg/History.aspx