# Hospice Egypt

Hospice Egypt (Arabic: هوسبيس مصر) is a Josaab foundation project aims to provide palliative care and end-of-life care services to terminally ill patients aged 18 years and above through governorates of Egypt.

## Background

Hospice Egypt was established in 2010 as a project of the Josaab Foundation for Social Development, a registered foundation by the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity under license 7800 for the year 2010, to provide various hospice services and palliative care for free to the incurably ill patients in the last stages of their lives. Hospice Egypt provides free services to all cases referred to the foundation by universities, public and private hospitals, clinics and medical centers.
In December 2017, Hospice Egypt was selected as a local organization in the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA). Through its cooperation with the Bayerischer Hospiz- und Palliativverband and the Deutsche Hospiz- und PalliativVerband (DHPV), Josaab Foundation has gained knowledge and skills through the training support provided by these organizations to the Hospice Egypt project and the annual training sessions for the foundation's members.
On November 3, 2019, Hospice Egypt entered into a cooperation protocol with the Baheya Foundation to provide patient care services, announced during the celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day by Maged Hamdy, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Baheya Foundation.
In 2021, Hospice Egypt signed a cooperation agreement with the Egyptian National Cancer to open a psychological support clinic at the National Cancer Institute, making the institute a strategic partner of the foundation in caring for late-stage cancer patients.
In 2022, Hospice Egypt services expanded to include four governorates, Cairo, Giza, Qalyubia, and Sharqia. In September 2023, the Faculty of Pharmacy at Misr International University signed a cooperation agreement with Hospice Egypt to provide healthcare to patients with late-stage cases of various diseases in their last days. In October, the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Canadian University of Egypt signed a cooperation protocol with Hospice Egypt.

## Activities

Hospice Egypt provides stationary hospice services, which depend on the patient residing inside the hospice building located in 49 KM Cairo-Ismailia Desert Road, and mobile hospice services, at-home hospice care in which volunteers visit the patients at their place of residence, and that reaches 85% of the project's patients. Hospice care is provided different services to patients at home according to their needs, such as medical and nursing care, pain relief, and psychological support to patients and their families.
Medical and nursing care includes covering the cost of home visits by physicians of various specialties according to the needs of each patient, providing medicines, equipment and medical supplies, in addition to psychological support for patients and their families in cooperation with psychiatrists or social workers, as well as financial support, which includes providing basic needs and paying the educational expenses of the children, bride-dowry, and paying off some debts resulting from the depletion of the family’s resources and savings during the treatment period. Psychological support for the family continues after death for a period ranging from 3 to 6 months, The services provided by Hospice Egypt are entirely voluntary and free of charge, whether by doctors, nurses, or those who provide psychological and moral support to patients and their families.