On the occasion of the sixth GCC Conference on Primary Health Care, held together with the Seventh Scientific Meeting of the Saudi Society of Family and Community Medicine, the Bahraini representative to the conference Dr. Hala Al-Muhaza said the Saudi MOH strategy of “A Doctor for Each Family” aims at allotting a doctor for each group of families. The family doctor will be responsible of following up the health services offered to all members of the family group, including children vaccinations and immunizations, young females pregnancy follow up, as well as follow up of other family members.
She said in Bahrain the Board of Directors of each health center includes a doctor, a nurse, an administrative member, and a person from the community who is close to the people and aware of their problems. “The health center is actually a social center”, she said “It provides integrated health programs covering all stages of human life. We are also studying a proposal of appointing a nurse in each school, but we need effective support from media”.
She said the conference discussed many important issues, but they require implementation and follow up. She called upon all Arab countries to adopt the idea of the family doctor, denoting that implementation of such project requires high awareness among the community, which in its turn requires effective participation of media. She said family doctors must be offered salaries equaling to the salaries of medical specialists, arguing that in USA the family doctor earns the third highest income among health workers following heart and chest specialists. On the other hand, Dr. Al-Muhaza demanded the family doctor to be knowledgeable of the basics of medical practice.
She said the family doctor must be possessing communicational skills in order to be able to talk to the patient and hold consultant sittings with him for solving other relative problems such as family problems, denoting that the humanitarian role of the family doctor is the aspect that differentiates him from other doctors.
She called upon the GCC countries to cooperate through exchanging relative experiences in order to be able to undertake the task of upgrading primary health care services. She said the GCC ministers of health are highly aware of the importance of the above steps but they need the support and understanding of the community. She demanded 60% of the MOH budgets to be allotted to primary health, denoting the efforts must be directed towards preventing the diseases rather than treating them. She stressed on the role expected from other decision makers, especially from the ministries of education and finance.
Though she acknowledges the right of all citizens to obtain free treatment, Dr. Al-Muhaza warned against irresponsible exploitation of such right by some citizens. “Some people visit health centers two or three times each week”, she said. “This may cause a burden on the ministries of health in the end”.
She praised the evening program allotted for women by the conference and the attention paid by the ruling family to medical concerns.