The Saudi health care system is due for a major reworking, Arab News reports. From expanded home care to standardization of practices in hospitals, the Ministry of Health is seeking to implement a 60-point program to raise the level of health care in the Kingdom…
Al-Rabeeah announces 60-point program
P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah announced Saturday a 60-point program to strengthen the Kingdom’s health service. He made the announcement during a consultative meeting of leading Health Ministry officials in Laith.
Dr. Khaled Mirghalani, spokesman for the ministry, said the program is aimed at improving the efficiency of public health institutions, raising monitoring levels, increasing the quality of health services, developing manpower capabilities and strengthening infrastructure.
“We have already started implementing some points of this program and results have been good,” said Mirghalani.
The consultative meeting has decided to focus on the management of beds at hospitals in all parts of the Kingdom to achieve optimum operational efficiency.
He disclosed plans to expand daylong surgery programs at public hospitals. At present, 33 percent of hospitals provide this service. “Some 3,632 surgical operations have been carried out during the last three months under this program,” he said.
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March:07:2010 - 12:08
[...] HEALTH CARE REFORM IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Overhauling health care is a big issue in Saudia Arabia, too… [...]
March:08:2010 - 09:45
60 point program…G0 points…Beyond 10 is too complicated.
March:08:2010 - 12:36
Great topic, thanks.
60 points well laid out should be feasible for a ministry to implement over time.
March:09:2010 - 06:33
Maybe if they focused on staffing hospitals instead of building them (making money for the commercial real estate people) they could improve the quality. I remember a kid who had his arms ripped off near Shakaka and the nearest recently-built hospital couldn’t attempt to re attach the limbs. And because of slow bureaucracy, the nearest specialist being in another province, the kid lost all hope of limb re-attachment. This was at a recently built hospital. Every time they build a building the media heralds it, but they do not ever follow through with looking at who is working inside these buildings and if they are qualified to perform their duties in a satisfactory manner.
March:09:2010 - 08:30
Anonymous–nice distinction between buildings and staffing and such a memorable and sad example to illustrate it. In North America “no beds” most often means no nursing staff to cover the patients, even though there are physical beds.
Appropriate training and distribution of health care providers including those sufficiently trained in emergency medicine and limb preservation, along with helicopter and air ambulances where distances are great, are essential.
March:09:2010 - 09:04
I’m not sure the example you provide is a good one. Hospitals do specialize and cutting-edge medicine is rarely available at most hospitals. Part of the reason is staffing; part of the reason is very real expense. Not every hospital, even in the US, even in any US city, has MRI and CAT equipment, for example, because those machines cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rare equipment calls for rare technicians and rare doctors specialized in those areas. Limb re-attachment is certainly not something done in every hospital in any country. Some countries are blessed by small size, so it’s not a huge deal to transfer a patient. Some bigger countries have the ability to transfer patients, expensively, by helicopter or specialized medical trauma aircraft.
But how do you ensure that you have doctors who have the exact specialization you need, when you need it, where you need it? Will all medical personnel be drafted, as in an army, and just be told what they’ll do? Some doctors choose to go into Cardiology; others go into Pediatrics. Neither of those is going to be the ‘go-to’ guy/girl if I lose a limb. Hospitals themselves tend to evolve toward specializations. In my own city, there’s one hospital I certainly want to go to if I have a heart attack. There’s another I’d choose if I came down with the ‘Bends’ in a diving accident. And yet another, were I to be involved in a traffic accident or developed a cancer. I’m lucky that my city has such choices available. Not every city can do so. Particularly in a developing country–as the KSA is–complete solutions aren’t going to be available all the time, to everyone. At any cost.
March:09:2010 - 09:26
very much so, John; here in Brittany you get a hospital which can treat most of the cases (even limbs reattachment) in a radius of say 100kms; in very specific and rare cases you may have to go to Paris (500kms), that’s life !
March:09:2010 - 10:07
John and Michel– that is the reason for having a good first line ER doc/trauma specialist at smaller hospitals. They do the right things until appropriate specialist intervention or transportation. That would be the first priority in staffing, along with a nurse with the same skills. Also tele-medicine is an inexpensive and valid way to have a consultation with a specialist while in transit.
off topic–John it is sometimes as in this case hard to follow whether a commentator was commenting at the same time as another, and therefore addressing someone else or without the benefit of the other comment(s). Might the time stamp indicate this better?
March:09:2010 - 10:26
The time-stamp isn’t working quite right. I’ll bring that up with the host and see what can be done.
March:09:2010 - 11:12
Chiara, that is a request I made to John many months back ! Unfortunately it seems his software person has not been able to solve it.
But yes, I often feel like I would like to know when exactly one comment or another was written
March:09:2010 - 11:21
Ah, we three are so in sync! LOL