President of the Republic chairs Iftar Banquet in Honor of Medical Staff Working in Nouakchott

The President of the Republic, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, chaired, Tuesday evening at the National Medical Center in Nouakchott, an Iftar banquet in honor of the medical staff working in health institutions in the three wilayas of Nouakchott.

The President’s Iftar with the White Vests comes as a continuation of his motivation and morale to motivate medical staff, to encourage their pivotal role in strengthening the health system, and to ensure better care for the health conditions of citizens and improve the medical services provided to them.

This Iftar also comes as a culmination of the efforts exerted by His Excellency the President of the Republic, since 2019, as a way to develop the health sector, which enabled a qualitative leap in the health field, whether in terms of services or facilities, in addition to paying attention to human resources and improving their efficiency.

These efforts focused on several main axes, including expanding the scope of health insurance to include the most needy groups, strengthening hospital capacities by building and equipping hospitals and health centers, supporting vital medical specialties such as organ transplantation and treatment of chronic diseases, improving the drug supply system and ensuring the availability of essential medicines at affordable prices.

Among the achievements witnessed by the health sector since 2019, for example, the doubling of the wages of health workers; the subscription of 2,921 employees in this sector between 2019 and 2024; free resuscitation, medical transport and the cost of pregnant women; the start of kidney transplantation for the first time in the country; free care for kidney diseases; and support for cancer, heart disease and malaria.

These achievements also included the provision of essential medicines at reduced prices; the updating of the National Medicines Regulation; the establishment of an emergency medical aid institution; the doubling of health insurance by 147%; the expansion of health insurance to 100,000 needy families, as well as parents, students, widows, people with special needs and workers in the unclassified sector; the expansion and equipping of the Nouakchott Specialty Hospital, which has moved from 47 to 140 beds; the construction and equipping of the new 150-bed Selibaby Hospital; and the construction and equipping of a medical center. Frame with a capacity of 150 beds; increasing the number of ambulances from 70 in 2019 to more than 260; and expanding the availability of oxygen production centers from just one in 2019 to 19.

These achievements in the health sector reflect the will of His Excellency the President of the Republic to build a strong, integrated and fair health system that contributes to the well–being of citizens and ensures their access to high–quality health services throughout the country.

The Iftar ceremony was attended by the Minister in charge of the Office of the President of the Republic, Mr. Nani Ould Shrougha, the Minister of Health, Mr. Abdallahi Ould Wadieh, and the Director of the National Medical Center, Dr. Sherif Jiddou Mini.