MOH, in collaboration with the Saudi Society of Family and Community Medicine (SSFCM) and the Executive Office of GCC Health Ministers, approved organization of the Sixth Gulf Conference for Primary Health Care, which will be held in Riyadh in the beginnings of June 2007 in coincidence with the SSFCH Seventh Scientific Meeting.
A preparatory meeting for the conference has been held recently under the chairmanship of the Minister of Health Dr. Hamad A. Al-Mane and attendance of SSFCM President Dr. Nabil Yassin Al-Qurashi, SSFCM Deputy President Dr. Abdullah Al-Sherif, and the General Secretary of the Executive Office of the GCC Health Ministers Dr. Tawfeeq A. Khowja. The meeting formulated a general framework for the conference activities and Dr. Al-Mane approved the relative scientific proposal submitted by SSFCH.
The meeting also reviewed formation of committees to carry out the preparatory works of the conference. A number of committees have formed for the organizational works, the meeting's activities and opening ceremony works, the informational works, and the publications works.
The conference aims to facilitate efficient communications as well as exchange of experience and scientific consultations among specialists in primary health care and family and community medicine. It will review the new strategies applied in the GCC countries in the fields of family medicine and primary health care. It will also try to find out ways for improving health care practices as well as practices of family medicine in light with the changes occurring within the medical field.
The conference will concentrate on five main issues, namely the strategies of health management and medical education, research activities in the fields of primary health care and family medicine, the basic health services of primary health care and family medicine, application of family medicine, and the economic feasibility of the family doctor.
A number of highly specialized scholars shall attend the conference, including primary health care and family medicine experts, consultants, and academicians from all GCC countries.