Last Tuesday, His Excellency the Deputy Minister for Planning and Development, Dr. Mohammed Khushaim, met with a delegation of prominent journalists representing American high-profile media. The delegation has paid a visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the aim to learn about the culture and values of the Saudi society, within the framework of the International Reporting Project adopted by Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Khushaim briefed the delegation on the report of the Kingdom's health services, both preventive and curative, and the programs adopted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) with the aim to provide health care for all citizens. He also briefed them on the MOH Ten-Year Strategic Plan as well as the National Comprehensive and Integrated Health Care Project. Then, Dr. Khushaim gave an elaborate account of the hardships and challenges encountering health planners, most notably the Kingdom's vast size, and the high incidence of non-communicable diseases. He also explained the Ministry's colossal efforts in the preventive, curative and educational domains seeking to provide best-quality health services for citizens and residents. In this very context, he mentioned that, to date, there are 249 MOH hospitals, at a total capacity of 34370 beds, in addition to 3 ophthalmic hospitals, 2094 primary healthcare centers, and 9 cardiac centers. “Besides,” he added, “there are 188 health projects currently under construction, including 95 hospitals (specialist and general hospitals, maternity and children hospitals, and mental health hospitals. That's to be added to 21 medical towers and the renovation of 44 projects, aside from the establishment of 11 dental centers, 13 laboratories and diabetes centers.”
It followed that His Excellency the Deputy Minister for Public Health, Dr. Zeyad Memish, briefed on the Kingdom's achievements, programs and activities during Hajj and Umrah seasons. He also gave an elaborate account of the Ministry's outstanding initiatives which gave rise to the health requirements during Hajj, to be met by all Hajj missions from all over the world. In addition, he went across the Ministry's promising partnerships with the world's most eminent universities and research centers in the field of communicable disease control, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), just to mention one example of many.
For their part, the delegates have commended the strenuous efforts exerted by the Saudi Ministry of Health in pursuit of the development of health services and improvement of performance. They expressed their admiration of the promising health programs and plans they got to learn about. They said, besides, they were looking forward to making good use of the Kingdom's distinguished expertise in mass medicine, so as to follow this example when organizing London Olympics 2012. Dr. Khushaim pointed out that among the most significant pillars is ensuring a crystal-clear health strategy, by preparing and choosing the proper health messages and awareness programs, in addition to the necessity of the role to be incurred by the experts specialized in this field.
It is worth mentioning that the delegation comprised a number the journalists working for the World Politics Quarterly Journal, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, Reuters, International Herald Tribune, the National Public Radio (NPR), Women's e-News, National Review, USA Today, Foreign Affairs, and the International Reporting Project.