By Muhammad Dawood

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH – As part of its “mystery shopper program”, the Ministry of Health carried out 34,430 inspection tours in all regions of the Kingdom and issued 2,088 punitive decisions against private health establishments.

The number of punitive decisions issued against health practitioners totaled 608. The violations committees issued several decisions, including the closing down of 15 hospitals, 234 medical complexes, 65 pharmacies and 65 other health institutions.

These facilities will remain closed until they rectify their status.

The ministry said that the most common violations included nonexistence of a valid license for the health facility and the health practitioner; absence of basic medical equipment and medicines; lack of measures for countering any infection, and absence of the minimum number of medical staff.

The ministry confirmed that the “mystery shopper program” aims to raise the standard of healthcare, as it is one of the initiatives of the Ministry of Health for national transformation and to achieve the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

The program focuses on evaluating healthcare performance from the perspective of the service recipient, in a genuine and objective manner via the “mystery shopper program”.

This is achieved via periodic field visits to all health facilities and submitting evaluation results to the decision-makers to carry out the projects and initiatives that will improve and develop healthcare services.