His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al–Rabeeah had a meeting yesterday with a group of provincial governors in the presence of a number of Shura Council members and World Health Organization (WHO) members, within the framework of activating the roles of service sectors forum; in order to promote health under the slogan (Unity for the Sake of Development). During the events of medical cities programs adopted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) as one of WHO activities, Dr. Al-Rabeeah has expressed his pleasure to meet them. Also, he urged them to promote the principles of willingness, initiative, creativity and enthusiasm to carry out the activities and events of the program.
During the meeting, the Minister of Health discussed the MOH strategy of medical cities programs; in order to achieve the ultimate integration and cooperation between citizens and service sectors to promote health awareness.
Dr. Al-Rabeeah has manifested MOH's keen interest in adopting an ambitious program in the Ministry under the supervision of the Deputy Ministry of Public Health to support the efforts of provinces and medical cities. Moreover, he vowed to remove difficulties and challenges that they face during implementation. He, also, expressed his appreciation for what has been accomplished in cities and provinces for promoting health, especially the experiences of Unaizah Province for community police, Bisha Province in Almatar District, as well as placing racetracks and walking paths in Jalajel, Almendq, Sharurah, Riyadh AlKhabra, AlQurrayat and other provinces.
For his part, the Shura Council member Dr. Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz Al-Suwailem, has expressed his pleasure with the reaction of such programs by all members of the society. Also, he congratulated the MOH and the whole nation for the great, positive reaction and response of all society classes and public sectors with MOH events and programs. Dr. Suwailem indicated that such programs are considered a quantum leap in the social awareness towards the society priorities, which is the interest in health matters.
Afterwards, efforts, programs and activities of provinces were reviewed in the meeting, showing how medical cities programs contributed to positively promoting health development; since such services are deemed to be a distinguished model to activate and motivate the role of the society to volunteer. Moreover, medical cities programs have helped activate the role of community participation for the purpose of promoting health by facing environmental and social conditions that affect community health.
The Governor of Unaizah, Mr. Hamad al-Sulaim, commended the activities carried out in the province such as community police and the agricultural program which emphasized adopting health policies in order to insure safety methods and quality of vegetables, that they are free of chemicals which affect public health, before selling them in markets. In addition, he talked about other activities like how accidents rates have notably decreased in Unaizah after the traffic safety programs; besides cultivating Al-Ghatha program. Al-Sulaim, also, talked about the idea of specifying 5 clubs equally distributed among Unaizah districts and distribute racetracks and walking paths, to implement the strategies and activities of healthy cities.
The Governor of Al-Qurrayat, Mr. Abuallah Saleh Al-Jaser, for his part, indicated that measures and efforts exerted by the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) to oust mixers and crushers from cities. The Governor of Al-Mendq, Mr. Mohammad bin Jamaán AlGhamdi underscored the significance of the program in cities and provinces, and urged to support such programs and assign it to a supreme committee or a program that is administratively associated with the Ministry to be executed by provinces by allocating certified budgets. In addition, he called for focusing on partnership programs to enhance health. Al-Ghamdi spoke about expanding greenery in Al-Medndq.
Mr. Abdullah bin Ali Al-Suwaed lauded the activities implemented by Jalajel Province as it was proactive to apply the concept of medical cities in its first stages. He called for raising awareness on the importance of such programs in schools, especially school canteens, health nutrition, combating unhealthy items sold by sellers near schools. Also, he commended dental hygiene program executed by MOH in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. Al-Suwaed called for the significance of holding periodical meetings with medical cities coordinators.
The Designate Governor of Riyadh Al-Khabra, Saleh Fawzan Al-Fawzan talked about the comprehensive concept of medical cities, which involves environmental, social, agricultural, security and health aspects. He also shed some light on the importance of MOH support to provide financial accounts and mechanisms to subsidize the program.
The Governor of Bisha, Mr. Mohammad Saud Al-Mathamee, concentrated on the importance of volunteer work within a unified team headed by the Governor of the Province to execute developmental activities. He talked about Bisha’s experience with regards to starting with and focusing on a specific district to implement the ideal district elements, where Al-Matar District was chosen and developed with an integrated plan, with the participation of all public sectors and associations. Afterwards, Al-Mathamee presented the experience of developing King Abdullah Park to be a celebratory location to benefit the whole province.