His Excellency the Deputy Minister of Health for Curative Medicine, Dr. Aqeel bin Jam'an Al-Ghamdi, has stated that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has attracted a number of 1323 consultants to work at the MOH hospitals, especially in peripheral regions.
Dr. Al-Ghamdi pointed out that, at the direction of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, the Medical Support Program was first set to work a couple of years ago, with the aim to alleviate the suffering of some patients during their visits to central hospitals. The Ministry seeks also to reduce referrals to referential hospitals by attracting distinguished constellations of highly qualified consultants to work temporarily at MOH hospitals, in light of the limited resources that make it difficult to sign permanent contracts with consultants in some specialties.
Dr. Al-Ghamdi went on to explain that the program is meant to fill the gap of medical manpower (especially consultants in peripheral hospitals), and reduce the number of patients referred to referential hospitals outside the regions where they live, as well as reducing the waiting lists of surgery departments and outpatient clinics. That is to be added to raising the level of health staff, of all specialties, by way of the educational and training courses given by visiting doctors, meanwhile making optimal use of Saudi national competencies in this program.
“Through consultants,” Dr. Al-Ghamdi said, “the Ministry of Health managed to best exploit the potential and capabilities provided by the ministry for the benefit of patients.” He also mentioned that these consultants have been attracted from Arab and Islamic countries (for instance, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan), as well as friendly Western countries (for instance, USA, UKA, Sweden, Germany and Ireland).
Concluding his statement, Dr. Al-Ghamdi revealed that, following the past Hajj season, the Ministry of Health has managed to attract some 400 consultants in all medical specialties and subspecialties to the MOH hospitals, and they were distributed to all the Kingdom's regions.