The Ministry of Health (MOH) has continued its success in attracting excellent constellations of consultant physicians from Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, USA, and those holding the highest scientific and academic degrees in the most sophisticated medical specialties. The Ministry has attracted them to work at a number of MOH hospitals, distributed throughout the Kingdom's regions, considering the difficulty of employing Saudi physicians in some medical specialties, owing to their scarcity. This comes within the framework of the Ministry's vision aiming to promote the healthcare services provided for citizens at their regions, and enable people to receive perfrect treatment, as well as alleviating the suffering they face when travelling to central hospitals.
The Assistant Deputy Minister of Health for Hospital Affairs, Dr. Aqeel Al-Ghamdi, said, “Following its success in the part-time employment of a constellation of Saudi excellent consultant physicians, as part of the Visiting Physician Program, to work at a number of central and referential hospitals, the Ministry of Health has embarked on the application of the consultative visits program, aiming to provide high-quality health services by assigning consultant physicians to pay frequent visits to the Kingdom's regions and provinces, especially the peripheral ones. In doing so, the Ministry seeks to provide citizens with high-quality healthcare services at the regions where they live, without the need to travel to other regions in quest of treatment.”
Dr. Al-Ghamdi pointed out that the program is not confined to MOH physicians. All Saudi competencies, at all governmental health sectors, are included. The health affairs directorates at the various regions coordinate with these physicians, according to patients' demands of medical specialties, to conduct visits, lasting for 3-5 days, every now and then, according to the density of patients, with a view to finding an effective solution for problem of waiting lists.
Al-Ghamdi added, “The Kingdom has recently received a 14-member team of consultant physicians holding the American Board Certification, internationally acknowledged to be the world's number-one certification in these fields and medical specialties: diagnostic radiology, sterilization, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, children's kidney diseases, oral and maxillofacial surgery, endoscopy surgery, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, abdominal diseases, and blood diseases. The team was disseminated to work at these regions: Jazan, Najran, Assir, Tabouk, Hail, Al-Qassim, Al-Jouf, and the Northern Border Region.”
“Another group of Egyptian consultant physicians (53 physicians), covering all sophisticated and rare medical specialties, has visited the Kingdom on May 14th, 2012, to work for three months at these regions: Tabouk, Jazan, the Eastern Region, Hail, the Northern Border, Madinah, Riyadh, Assir, Al-Jouf, Najran, and Al-Baha; as well as these provinces: Hafr Al-Batin, Al-Ahsa, Al-Qunfudah, and Al-Qurayyat,” Dr. Al-Ghamdi added.
Speaking of the objective of this program, Dr. Al-Ghamdi said, “It is basically intended to alleviate patients' suffering, treat incurable cases, reduce waiting time, invest the world's high-profile experiences in the development of performance at hospitals, reduce referrals from one region to another, and to make optimal use of the competencies attracted to work at MOH hospitals. In so doing, the Ministry endeavors to meet citizens' health demands, by investing these experiences in the development of performance at MOH hospitals, through such ways as workshops and educational lectures.”
For his part, the Director-General of MOH Specialized Centers and Visiting Physicians, Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Wade'i has emphasized that coordination is underway to attract other batches of consultant physicians, under the part-time employment system, from Jordan and Pakistan, seeking to replenish the demands of MOH hospitals throughout the Kingdom. “Besides,” he added, “Efforts are exerted in full swing, according to the plan set by the Assistant Agency of Hospital Affairs, to complete the yet-to-be-applied phases of the program, by attracting high-profile constellations of consultant physicians; thus conforming to the directives given by His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, to improve the healthcare services provided for citizens.”