Sheikh Mohammed Al-Fuaim, Assistant Deputy Minister of Justice for Judicial Reference praised the directives of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, emanating from the generous guidance of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, for making every effort in serving patients and resolving all their problems, by establishing the Patient Relations General Department.
In his speech delivered before the “First International Patient Relations Symposium”, on behalf of the Minister of Justice, Al-Fuaim has acclaimed the role of the Patient Relations General Department as a connecting link between the patient and service providers to attain the highest levels of satisfaction for patients and their families in the MOH health facilities, and to develop strategies in a systematic and scientific manner to study the complaints, observations and propositions of patients and their families, in addition to developing specific ways to measure patients' satisfaction of the services provided to them, and then analyze the results and make use of them to develop recommendations for improving performance of health facilities.
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Fuaim emphasized that the patients' rights are definitely consistent with the principles of the Shari'ah, pointing out that such rights include knowledge of patients' rights and responsibilities, access to healthcare, privacy and confidentiality, protection and safety, respect and appreciation, participation in the healthcare plan, and availability of a system to handle complaints and propositions.
The Assistant Deputy Minister of Justice for Judicial Reference concluded his speech by underscoring the importance of the Medico-Legal Committees, which perform their tasks in accordance with the juridical systems in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the application of patients' rights by looking at the patients' complaints, including complaints related to medical errors.