Introduction In 1996, the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP), instituted a National Injury Surveillance System (NISS) to assess the contribution of injuries to the overall burden of disease in Egypt and to identify areas of interventions.

Objectives To evaluate the performance of the NISS based on injury surveillance data during 2007.

Methods An evaluation of the NISS was conducted of five attributes: acceptability, flexibility, representativeness, simplicity and stability based on the systems design and history. Additional attributes were also evaluated, including timeliness and data quality based upon data collected during 2007. Injury cases are identified on the first time of emergency department (ED) accessing with any type of injury.

Results Currently the system collects data from 234 Public and central hospitals, 221 specialised hospitals, 487 health integration hospitals and 194 rural health groups and 9 educational hospitals constituting 55.38% of Egyptian health facilities. ED data are collected monthly from hospitals and become available centrally within a month. All cases included in the data meets the Injury case definition. The system has shown its flexibility by recently adapting to changes to ICD10 coding. The system doesn't include health insurance hospitals, universal hospitals, Police and prison hospitals, railways hospitals and private sector hospitals.

Conclusions THE MOHP NISS provides detailed and timely information on outpatient injury cases that can identify areas of interventions in injury prevention in Egypt. The engagement of other health institutions such as the university and private sectors will enhance the efficacy of the system