The activities of the Sixth Gulf Conference on Primary Health Care, jointly with the activities of the Seventh Scientific Meeting of the Saudi Society of Family and Community Medicine, shall start today Monday 2007. The events are jointly organized by MOH, the Executive Bureau of the Council of the GCC Ministers of Health, and the Saudi Society of Family and Community Medicine during the period from 18 to 20/06/2007 at King Faisal Conference Hall in Riyadh.
The conference provides an opportunity for establishing relationships and exchanging experience and knowledge in the field of primary health care and family and community medicine, says MOH. It also provides an opportunity for reviewing the strategic developments in the fields of primary health care and family and community medicine in the Gulf and the wrold. It aims at developing the activities of primary health care as well as family and community medicine on the basis of the changes overwhelming health services internationally.
The MOH Undersecretary for Planning and Development Dr. Obeid Al-Obeid, head of the conference's High Steering Committee, said a number of distinguished health planners, experts, and scholars from inside and outside the Kingdom will attend the conference. Field studies conducted in the Kingdom and the regional countries shall be discussed, in addition to case applications in family medicine and health management strategies, he said.
He said the MOH Executive Council, headed by the Minister of Health Dr. Hamad Al-Mane, has approved the idea of the Saudi Society of Family and Community Medicine, which calls for (A Doctor for each Family) to be submitted to the conference.
On his part, the MOH Official Speaker Dr. Khalid M. Al-Marghalani attributed the great improvements in health care services in the Kingdom to the effective support of the High Leadership. He said the project of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for establishing two thousand advanced health centers in the different parts of the Kingdom has been funded by 6.5 billion Riyals from the surpluses of 1424/25 and 1425/26 budgets.
Al-Marghalani said MOH has gone far in establishing 1010 primary health care centers in three stages, a first stage involving 150 centers, a second stage involving 420 centers, and a third stage involving 450 centers. He said these centers shall realize a quality move in the field of primary health care and services.