The Council of Health Services (CHS) held yesterday its 63rd meeting under the chairmanship of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah. The meeting was attended by the council members from governmental and private health sectors, and it was about the “Annual Review of CHS Secretariat Work”.
The meeting reviewed a number of projects approved by the Council, and discussed a number issues, including the worksheet prepared by the Secretariat on the records of diseases in the Kingdom, which had been discussed by a number of supervisors of disease records.
At the end of the meeting, the Secretary General of the Council, Dr. Yacoub bin Yousef Al-Mazrou, has revealed that the Ministry has approved to embark on creating records of diseases in the Kingdom under the umbrella of the General Secretariat of the Council, along with providing the human and financial support for this project, in order for the current records in some national health authorities to be the starting point of this project. Dr. Al-Mazrou said that Council briefed on the latest of the National Health lexicon Project, and assigned a panel of experts to supervise the implementation of this project. Besides, of the Terms and Conditions Brochure of the lexicon has been prepared, which was then put to tender, in preparation for its implementation by one of the competent consulting offices.
He added that the project aims at preparing and issuing a Saudi health lexicon, in hard and soft copies, in concordance with the globally approved norms and standards; so as to be a unified reference for all health-related parties in the Kingdom.
The Secretary-General mentioned that the Council also discussed the study of the human resources in the health field, and the health sectors' needs of such resources. The study aims at analyzing the current situation of human resources in the health field in Saudi Arabia, including comparing supply versus demand, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of human resources in the health field, making comparisons in the light of the international standards. That's to be added to identifying the human resources priorities in the health field with regard to the preparation, national or foreign cadres, as well as specifying the opportunities available for abroad training outside the Kingdom for these cadres, and the preparation of a simulation computer model.
He went on adding that the Council also discussed the project of Health Coding, and what has been achieved by the national committee supervising the application of medical coding, which consists of a constellation of specialists in the health domain from the public and private sectors in the Kingdom. So far, basic regulations regarding the qualification of undergraduates to be specialized in coding has been completed, and their disciplines are identified according to the international approaches. Coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH) has been conducted in terms of the legal and technical fields. In so doing, the Ministry seeks to benefit from the international experiences and make use of their long experience in facilitating the implementation process in the Kingdom. Also, the "National E-Health Portal", launched by His Excellency the Minister of Health and Chairman of the Council of Health Services, Dr. Al-Rabeeah, is being developed, stemming from the importance of electronic transactions in facilitating and the effective use of medical coding. Besides, workshops were held to promote the awareness of medical coding in Riyadh; and to increase the awareness and recognition of the importance of the international classification of diseases.
Concluding the meeting, which was attended by the Director-General of the E-Government Program "Yasser", Eng. Ali Al-Soma , Dr. Al-Mazrou announced that the council briefed on the latest of “Exchanging Patient Data” Project, and the electronic link between the sectors, to be implemented in cooperation with the E-Government Program "Yasser". The program has provided the infrastructure to the link, and connected hospitals involved in the project with the government network. This step is essential to connect all the rest of health sectors, construct a centralized network, and exchange the data compatible with the E-Government Program.