Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette



The Ministry of Health, in its efforts to combat contagious disease and global epidemics, is organizing frequent meetings with officials from various health organizations to study in depth fatal diseases  mainly coronavirus and most recently the Ebola epidemic.



It is this state of preparedness that has enabled the ministry to state its readiness for the Haj season at its 16 country entrances, with particular focus on Jeddah and Madinah airports. In the Haj site, Arafat, there will be an isolation section with 50 beds. About 22,000 doctors and nurses are to be moved from around the country to Makkah to serve during the Haj season. There are now 620 heath staff at King Abdul Aziz airport and 100 in Jeddah Islamic Port to service and monitor the health status of pilgrims.



The ministry has set a meeting lately in Jeddah with specialists from top ten countries where majority of pilgrims come from, this is to ascertain the risks that can face public health during the Haj season, and also to address the procedures that these countries take at their airports and sea ports before their pilgrims head to the Kingdom.



The Kingdom has struggled with coronavirus, which infected 730 patients while killing 302 of them. However, the ministry has not announced till date any Ebola case in the country. It has already banned travelers and workers from the three affected countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. However, no ban has been imposed on Nigeria that sends 70,000 pilgrims each year.



The Deputy Acting Minister of Health for Planning and Development Muhammad Al-Khushaim told reporters that there is nothing ‘to worry about’ regarding Nigeria and that they are following up with the World Health Organizations who are providing updates about Ebola development in Nigeria. He added that WHO is also following up with the Kingdom regarding their preparation for the Haj season and are in close contact with them at the holy sites.



Speaking to Saudi Gazette, on the sidelines of a cancer conference, he said regarding the infection allowance, “There is a committee that is studying it, those in direct contract with patients are more in need compared to others, and will be receiving it.”



Asked about the delayed projects, he said that only a few contractors have delayed in handing in a few projects by some 5 to 6 months, which he said is not major. “We do not accept any project that does not comply to our dimensions or that is not up to standards,” he added.



Asked about their new dimensions, Al-Khushaim said they include recently “increasing the capacity of the intensive care units and the number of isolation rooms especially after the coronavirus.”



According to him they have 130 projects on the anvil and some are about to finish, while about 80% of the other projects have been finalized and some are still in the design stage.



According to a Ministry of Health report, the Kingdom will have five medical cities, which will have 6,200 beds in total. This includes expanding King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh, King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah, King Faisal Medical City in the southern region, King Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Medical City in the northern region, and King Khaled Medical City in the Eastern Province. These cities have doctors who are specialized in critical surgeries including, cancer, neurosurgery, heart, transplant, and eye surgeries.



Starting in 2010 the ministry launched its strategic plan: Patient First. This plan looks forward to enhance the quality of health services provided by implementing a comprehensive health care service. It also works on quality control, evaluating performance and recruiting qualified staff. It further involves developing an information system for the health sector.



During the last five year the ministry operated 776 first aid medical centers and are now working on establishing 637 others. By the end of the development plan the ministry will have a total of 2,750 centers. So far these centers provide 70% of the services provided by the ministry. These centers received 53.6 million visits in 2012. They have also provided 20 different health programs for children, youth, women and elderly people. Programs also addressed infectious diseases and psychological health care.



The Kingdom has 9 surgery centers and the total will be 15 after operating the remaining centers. There also five centers for cancer. Up to 143 centers for kidney failure are operating in the Kingdom, along with 20 kidney dialysis center, 20 centers for diabetes, and 32 dental clinics. The ministry has also made agreements with the private sector to provide kidney dialysis for patients at a total budget of SR1.9 billion. Different patients have been moved to the private sector after failing to get beds at public hospitals, with the total amount spent on them being over SR1 billion.



To enhance the quality in the health sector, some 1,000 employees are working on relations with patients and this includes taking their views and receiving complaints on services provided. The ministry has also recruited 2,833 consultant doctors from around the world, who visited 50 cities. It also has 1,424 staff, who are on scholarship programs, and 500 are added to King Abdullah Scholarship program each year, and there are also 3,000 employees who are receiving local internship inside the country. The one-day surgeries increased by 46% from 2010 making the total number of operations reach 65,305 last year. This helped benefit more by relieving pressure on beds and in serving more patients. The ministry plan opts to allocate 3 beds for each 1,000-member public.



The total number of patients who benefited from home service health care exceeds 37,000 patients, who have been treated for major illnesses that include, chronic diseases, elderly diseases, neuro and psychological illnesses as well as sever disabilities and strokes.



The ministry is also providing an electronic system that allows patients to move from one hospital to another through the help of 2,200 ambulances. Some 95,000 have benefited from this program. The ministry also has a hot line that is working 24/7 to receive emergency cases. It has so far dealt with over 143,000 cases.



The ministry has also started implementing a pre diagnostic program for breast cancer for women, who are 45 years old or above, in Riyadh. This program in its first stage targets 10,000 women and at a later stage will be implemented to serve all women in different regions of the Kingdom.



The ministry has 37 advanced programs for different diseases and has increased the list of vaccines to include 24 diseases in 2010 as opposed to only five in 1990. Over 88% of the public have taken these vaccines.



There are three centers that has 146 beds at their intensive care units and multiple isolation rooms allocated for any suspicious or positive coronavirus cases.



The private sector has 139 hospitals, 22,343 medical complexes, 7,352 pharmacies, 105 laboratories, and 51 rehabilitation centers. The sector has over 86,600 staff.



In numbers 55 million

visits to the medical centers 11 million

ER services provided

450 million

surgeries





The number of infant deaths dropped from

34

in 1990 to eight in 2013 for every

1,000 infants

The number of death among newborn dropped from

20

in 1990 to five in 2013 for every

1,000 newborn



The number of mothers? deaths dropped from

44

in 1990 to 14 mothers for every

100,000

in 2013





The average age has increased from

69 years

in 1990 to

75 years

in 2013