The Executive Board of GCC Health Ministers Council has held its regular seventy-ninth meeting on Sunday morning in Riyadh. The meeting is planned to last for three days.
The Chairman of the Executive Board of GCC Health Ministers Council, Prof. Tawfiq bin Ahmad Khojah, has pointed out that the board has discussed in the beginning of its meeting a number of issues; including combating non-communicable diseases, alternative and complementary medicine, mental health, the proposed cooperation program with Edinburgh University entitled: “Promotion of Patient’s Safety in Primary Health Care”, neuropathies, and the adoption of Gulf referential centers.
Dr. Khojah went on adding that the board also discussed topics of health systems development (financing health services) and the professional health, the Kingdom’s request to assign a day for the GCC patientand expats’ rights, as well as making the Gulf region free of malaria. He further added that the board discussed health promotion, the electronic connectivity between data centers in GCC countries and the Executive Board, the health information systems, the smart card, the development and improvement of the Executive Board work, and the Unified Procurement Program.
Within the same vein, Dr. Tawfiq underlined that the Board also shed light on the issue of central drug registration, and the proposal of joining GCC Countries to the WHO program related to integrity, transparency, pricing medicines, therapeutic feeding, Anti-smoking Program, the polio issue, and the depository trust fund and research.
Finally, Dr. Khojah indicated that the meeting also discussed the arrangements for the seventy-sixth Conference of GCC Health Ministers Council, Allah Willing, which is to be held in January in Kuwait, in addition to the adoption of the proposed agenda for the health ministers.