The Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced the launch of the Medical E-Certificate Service, through which the information included in medical reports will be transferred from accredited health authorities to the databases of the General Directorate of Passports (GDP) by linking the two parties through an electronic network.
This announcement was made by His Excellency, the Advisor to the Ministry of Health and Director-General of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Dr. Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Yamani, as well as the GDP Director of Information Technology, Lieutenant Colonel Khaled Hamad Al-Saikhan.
“This new electronic service enables the accredited medical authorities to access a safe and secure e-portal, through which residents' medical reports, necessary for residence examination, could be submitted. Thus, medical information will be available for the GDP, with no need to enclose a paper report, which had formerly been an indispensable requirement for the issuance and renewal of residence permit,” said Dr. Al-Yamani.
“The aim of this project,” Dr. Al-Yamani added, “is to make available of statistics and reports for the relevant authorities, easily and feasibly. It also seeks to reduce the medical reports fraud and provide information quickly and effectively for the stakeholders. It is expected, besides, that the service will promote the Saudi Health Safety Service through immediate deportation of those infected with communicable diseases.”
Al-Yamani further explained that users of the Medical E-Certificate System will be able, through a common user interface, to log in to the system, after submitting the username and password on the home page. In this way, they will be able to access their pre-registered information and change their passwords by editing their profiles.
The number of hospitals accredited to operate the service is about 350 hospitals, distributed throughout the Kingdom, added Dr. Al-Yamani. A number of non-accredited hospitals, however, will still be able to access the service by sending samples to accredited hospitals in exchange for a cost share.
“Among the most significant advantages of the Medical E-Certificate System,” Dr. Al-Yamani continued, “is the ability to add or remove any hospital or health center without the need for traditional mailing, which wastes much time and effort. In addition, the ability to add or remove any medical examination approved by the Ministry of Health is also available; thus providing a quick response to the changes of the patient's health conditions every now and then.”
Furthermore, Al-Yamani pointed out that this project seeks to replace paper medical certificates with electronic ones to facilitate the registration and transfer of information included in medical reports (residence examination) from the accredited health authorities to the GDP databases by linking the two parties through an electronic network. Accordingly, such information would be available and accessible for the GDP in case the sponsor wants to issue or renew the residence of those sponsored.
Dr. Al-Yamani stated that the stakeholders include MOH, accredited hospitals, service providers, Al-Elm Information Security Co., National Information Center, and GDP.
For the sake of more clarity, Al-Yamani further expounded that this service is a safe and secure e-portal, through which residents' medical reports, necessary for residence examination, could be submitted. Thus, medical information will be available for the GDP, without need to enclose a paper report, which had formerly been an indispensable stipulation for the issuance and renewal of residence.
As his announcement drew to a close, Dr. Al-Yamani made clear that the system users are of two types; namely data entry clerks, and data checkers. While data entry clerks are assigned to submit data, data checkers are assigned to review medical reports, and approving or rejecting them, as well as sending them (in case of approval) to the GDP.
For his part, the GDP Director of Information Technology, Lieutenant Colonel Khaled Hamad Al-Saikhan, said that the Directorate seeks to build effective and constructive partnerships with the various actors, with the aim to develop the governmental e-services. According to him, unstinting efforts are being exerted to link all the governmental sectors one another, with the aim to achieve electronic integration and enable ally systems to provide integrated high-quality services for beneficiaries.
These efforts have been proven crucial for the fulfillment of the requirements of e-governance, through a wide range of safe and secure e-services, which have been acknowledged, by both citizens and residents, to be of peculiar importance in facilitating their transactions, as well as saving their money and effort, by means of a retail portal, taking the place of the formerly paper transactions, and replacing it with an advanced high-tech mechanism characterized by so many advantages, including saving time and effort, and increasing the efficiency of the various processes, so as to be accomplished in no time, if compared to the traditional mechanism, which used to take so long time, causing work-flow to be very slow and tedious, thus diminishing the possibility of development and improvement. “The Medical E-Certificate Service will add much to the automation of residence issuance and renewal processes,” Al-Saikhan concluded.