MOH Publications

MOH's Media Report on the Occasion of Saudi National Day 1435H.
​Health services are attached all the care and attention by our Rulers, may Allah protect them, in light of the cultural renaissance and the sustainable development involving all services and infrastructures in our dear country thanks to the successive development plans in the first place, thanks be to Allah, and to the tireless efforts of the State in supporting the health services at all levels.
 
Within the same vein, the Ministry of Health (MOH) plays a main role in realizing and sustaining the health development, proceeding from its responsibility in developing and implementing the health policy. The Ministry focuses, through its health strategy, on providing all citizens with the health services, including all the preventive, curative, and rehabilitative aspects, and making these services accessible to them in an easy and convenient way.
 
MOH has harnessed all its potentials aiming at ensuring citizens health and safety, as well as gaining their satisfaction. As such, it has carried out several programs with a view to serving patients. Further, the Ministry has at hand a lot of developmental projects, under implementation or construction, which were approved to be included in the MOH's budget. These projects include developing and constructing medical cities, specialized and general hospitals, and medical towers. These projects are to cover the entire Kingdom's regions and governorates. And they will, Allah willing, contribute to advancing the level of the health services. Currently, the MOH is witnessing comprehensive and developmental improvement, and undergoing a quantum leap in all its services and facilities, all of which aim at ensuring the patient's safety and service and gaining his satisfaction.
 
Development and Construction Projects: 
The Ministry of Health has finished the National Project for Integrated and Comprehensive Healthcare as one element of the strategic plan. This was manifested in four main projects.
 
 Primary Health Care Centers Projects:
The primary health care centers are considered the most prominent pillar of the National Project for Integrated and Comprehensive Healthcare. Thus, 776 centers were established and equipped during the last three years, and 637 centers are under construction, bringing the total number of the new centers to 1671 centers. Annually, these centers are visited by approximately 55 million patients. As such, the number of the primary health care centers is to rise from 1905 centers in 1430H to 2109 centers in 1434H. By the end of the strategic plan, the total number of centers will increase to 2750.
 
Hospitals:
61 hospitals, with a total bed capacity of 7956 beds, were run in the last five years. Moreover, 10 hospitals will be run and inaugurated as part of the MOH's plan that aims at running 30 hospitals in 1434/1435H. Also, 138 hospitals and medical towers, with a total bed capacity of 34800 beds, are being established and put up for tenders. In this way, the number of beds will increase from 31400 beds in 1430H to 36886 beds by the end of 1434H. The total number of beds is expected to reach 73000 beds by the end of the strategic plan in 1440 H.
 
Specialized Medical Centers:
During the past four years, the Ministry began to expand the establishment of specialized medical centers. The MOH has actually established 9 cardiology centers. In addition, 3 new  heart centers are under construction, besides running 3 other centers in the last year. Thus, the total number of the heart centers will amount to 15 centers. The Ministry has also run 5 oncology centers. Moreover, it is currently working on constructing 3 other centers. Thus, the total number of tumor centers will increase to 8 centers. By the end of the strategic plan (1440H), the number of oncology centers will increase up to 12 centers, in addition to the services provided in the departments and units of oncology in the other hospitals.
 
Medical Cities:
The Ministry will establish 5 medical cities under the National Project for Integrated and Comprehensive Health Care with the aim of increasing the number of beds up to 6200 beds. The medical cities are expected to comprise a number of specialized hospitals and centers for tumors, nervous system, complicated cardiac operations, radiotherapy, transplantation of organs and eyes, along with other rare specialties.
 
The medical cities include expansion of King Fahd Medical City (KFMC) in Riyadh to serve the Central Region, King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah to serve the Western Region, King Faisal Medical City to serve the Southern Region, Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Medical City to serve the Northern Region, and King Khalid Medical City to serve the Eastern Region.
 
Programs of Medical Performance Improvement:
The Ministry of Health has adopted a new and integrated package of qualitative programs to improve the medical performance, including:
 
  1. Medical Institutions Accreditation Program: 50 hospitals were accredited by the Central Board of Accreditation for Healthcare Institutions (CBAHI); along with other 40 hospitals waiting for accreditation. In addition, 23 hospitals have been accredited by JCI; along with other 21 hospitals waiting for the same accreditation.
  2. Clinical Audit Program: this program follows up 49 clinical indicators in 90 hospitals.
  3. Critical Errors Reporting Program: this program analyzes and records the errors and develops rules to ensure that they will not recur again.
  4. Physician Productivity Follow-up Program
  5. Drug Safety Program
  6. Australian Medical Coding System
  7. Productivity Improvement Program: this program is used to improve productivity in operation rooms, intensive care units, and emergency departments.
 
New Specific Service Programs:
The Ministry has adopted a specific package of the new service programs, including:
  1. One-Day Surgery Program: this program has managed to improve the percentage of one-day surgery from 2% in 1430H to 46% in 1434H.
  2. Home Medicine Program: this program is meant to provide all the services patients need. The number of beneficiaries of this program reached 37000 patients till now, since its launch in 1430H.
  3. Visiting Physician Program: this program seeks to attract technical cadres of consultants specialized in rare specialties from within and without the Kingdom to work in its regions and provinces. The total number of the attracted consultants reached 2833 consultants since the inauguration of the program in 1430H.
  4. Program of Service Purchase from the Private Sector: a patient who does not find a bed in MOH hospitals is referred to the private sector. This service is widely used in the intensive care units for adults, children and newborns, as well as the emergency departments. The total sum allocated for this program during the last year reached SR 1.5 billion.
  5. Program of Dialysis Services Purchase from the Private Sector: the total sum allocated for this program since 1434H reached SR 1.9 billion.
 
Administrative Performance Improvement Programs:
  1. Referral Program: this program aims to refer the patients among the Kingdom's hospitals in an electronic, fast and clear manner, whereas the physician is the only person who can start the referral procedures directly. This e-program is designed to transfer patients whose health status requires referral to large hospitals, in an endeavor to ensure highly professional referral of patients without the need for entreaty to obtain this service. The “Referral E-Program” aims to facilitate the process of referring patients who need to be treated in specialized hospitals in any city in the Kingdom. It will help connect all governmental hospitals to all health facilities inside the Kingdom, as opposed to the previous procedure, under which referring patients from a hospital to another was conducted by the General Medical Committee of the region or the city. 
  2. 937 Service: the Ministry has established an emergency call center working 24/7 to serve patients, provide ambulatory services and meet the needs of patients.
  3. Establishment of Patient Rights and Relations Department in all Hospitals and Health Directorates: this program serves as a link between the Ministry and the citizens. It was created upon the desire of the Ministry of Health to strengthen and develop the process of communication with the beneficiaries of its services in all health facilities, by solving their problems and facilitating the process of delivering the appropriate health services for them. The Ministry managed, through this program, to electronically monitor and identify the level of patients and beneficiaries' satisfaction with the services provided in 100 hospitals.
Preventive Medicine and Health Promotion:
In line with the emergence of suspected and confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) in the Kingdom together with a number of countries across the various continents of the world, MOH has exerted significant efforts to control and contain this virus and adopted a package of measure which contributed – tanks be to Allah - to significantly reducing the incidence of these cases. Such procedures include:
 
  1. Three Medical Centers Dedicated to Coronavirus Control: Within its urgent plan to control the current situation concerning the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has dedicated three specialized medical centers in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Region, to combating Coronavirus all over the Kingdom. King Abdullah Medical Complex in Jeddah, being equipped with the medical capabilities and modern equipment, has been appointed as the main center for combating Coronavirus. These complexes contain 146 beds for intensive care. Furthermore, all these complexes are equipped with isolation rooms, as well as the latest necessary medical equipment and laboratories, in addition to the outpatient clinics. Over and above, other medical centers specialized in corona in the Kingdom’s regions will be inaugurated afterwards. 
  2. Medical Advisory Board: As part of its plan to help combatthe MERS Corona Virus in the Kingdom, MOH has approved of appointing a board of medical advisors with extensive expertise in infectious diseases control. The 10 member board will work under the direction of Dr. Prof. Tariq Ahmed Madani, the Advisor at the Ministry. The mission of the board is to prepare and submit medical reports and consultations on the status and severity of the MERS Corona Virus, as well as the follow-up of existing cases.
  3.  Command and Control Center: The Ministry of Health has launched a new health command and control center to protect the public, and increase the level of preparedness against future health challenges. Through the new Command and Control Center, the Ministry of Health will ensure- Allah willing - that it can take a proactive and swift action against future public health challenges, such as MERS-CoV, within the Kingdom by ways of continuous coordination and monitoring. The Command and Control Center is staffed with clinicians, scientists and researchers, as well as healthcare and emergency planning experts. The center has been developed under the direct supervision of His Excellency the Minister of Health, in collaboration with international experts and organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
 
The Center has managed – thanks be to Allah - to address more effectively the current challenges. It will also contribute to raising levels of public preparedness for the future, in addition to upgrading level of healthcare quality in the Kingdom as a whole.
 
The Command and Control Center has been restructured to address the health challenges using scientific and systematic manner. It includes a total of 11 platforms, each of which is tasked with addressing a specific topic, all under the coordination of the control tower platform which acts as the central coordinator of the whole operation.
 
 A package of additional measures:
In order to boost the level of preventive measures to address risks of the spread of the infection, and raise the level of healthcare sector readiness to deal with the future challenges, MOH has adopted a package of measures within its unstinting efforts exerted to control the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV). These measures included guidelines to control of risks of infection spread, in addition to establishing specialized units under the control center to control the Coronavirus.
 
The center will address the emergency health challenges in the Kingdom. It consists of a number of units including: Control Tower, a unit for coordination with the competent authorities, Scientific Committee, Scientific Advisory Board, Epidemiology Support Platform, Infection Control, Capacity Development, Clinical Operations, Data Analytics, Internal and External Communication, and Labs and Diagnostic Stages.
 
These measures include:
  •  Issuing new stringent instructions for infection control based on a new case definition;
  • Tasking a constellation of experts with oversight of rapid response policies across the Kingdom.
  • Putting into action a system to review the current capability and capacity within healthcare facilities in the Kingdom.
  • Conducting comprehensive review of the number of the corona cases recorded at all hospitals and health centers throughout the Kingdom since the onset of the MERS-CoV.
 
Ebola Control:
In response to the outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West African countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone), the following protective measures should be put into action:
 
  1.  No visa to the KSA for Hajj, Umrah or any other purpose should be granted to travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. All KSA embassies and consulates should make sure that all applicants for entry visa to KSA have not travelled or lived in EVD affected countries within the last 3 weeks preceding their application.
  2.  Entry visa should not be given to any person who visited or lived in the affected EVD countries within the last 3 weeks for Hajj, Umrah and any other purposes, and making sure that all visitors to KSA at points of entry (land, sea and air ports) fill the Ebola screening card before entering the KSA.
  3. The Saudi MOH advised all citizens to abide by the following health tips including: ensuring self-hygiene, avoiding contact with Ebola patients, and avoiding contact with the tools contaminated with bodily fluids (blood, sections, pee, poop, etc) of an Ebola patient. In addition, those who recently lived in places famous with Ebola cases, have to learn about infection symptoms and to see a doctor once they feel the onset of early symptoms of the disease.
 
Workforce Qualification:
  1.  The number of MOH employees on overseas scholarships increased from 1049 scholars in 1431H to 1424 scholars in 1432H.
  2. 2500 opportunities have been dedicated to MOH employees as part of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Program for Foreign Scholarship, with a rate of 500 scholars a year.
  3. The number of internal scholarships increased from 600 employees in 1430H to 3000 employees in 1435H.
 
Private Sector:
The Kingdom has witnessed a significant development at the level of the private health sector in all its regions and provinces. The number of private health intuitions, pharmacies and the licensed medical and technical cadres have increased during the last years as following:
 
  1. Licensed hospitals increased from 123 to 139.
  2. Medical complexes increased from 1803 to 2343.
  3. Pharmacies increased from 5483 to 7352.
  4. Laboratories increased from 70 to 105.
  5. Medical treatment centers increased from 39 to 51.
  6. The number of licensed health cadres in the private health sector (including physicians, nurses and pharmacists) has increased from 52,725 to 86,684.
 
Information Technology and E-Health:
  1. The Ministry of Health has launched a number of e-health programs, including:
  2. Health Information System (HIS).
  3. Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).
  4. Cloud Computing System.
  5. Health Electronic Surveillance Network (HESN).
  6. 5-Pre-Marital Screening System.
  7. Neonatal Protection System.
  8. Poison Control e-System.
  9. Telemedicine e-System.
 
Furthermore, the Ministry has managed to link most of the its hospitals to an electronic system to register and follow up the critical medical errors, which take place in hospitals within up to 48 hours. Linking the private sector hospitals will follow in the forthcoming period. Also, the Ministry has developed a unified system of multi-media communications, allowing the user to receive the coming audio and video messages, as well as fax messages, at their email or cell-phones. Under this system, 150.000 MOH employees will be covered in the first phase.
 
 
 
 
Last Update : 03 January 2019 12:45 PM
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