His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah, has stated that the Ministry of Health (MOH), by the grace of Allah in the first place, and thanks to the colossal support offered by the Government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, may Allah protect him, has continued to provide preventive, therapeutic and ambulatory services, by way of opening and operating 79 new health projects throughout the Kingdom. These medical edifices have added a total of 12.163 beds over the period from 1429H till the end of 1434H. According to Dr. al-Rabeeah, the Ministry is currently preparing for the inauguration of a host of hospitals which have been already built in a number of the Kingdom's regions and provinces, including Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Hail, Eastern Region, al-Jouf, Tabouk, Najan, Jazan, al-Baha, al-Qassim and the Northern Border. These hospitals add a total of 7.745 beds, including 4.749 new beds, and 3.035 renovated ones. These projects include medical towers, maternity and children specialist hospitals, and mental health hospitals. Over the past year, in addition, 15 hospitals have been set to work across the Kingdom, adding a total of 3.450 beds.
This announcement has been made by His Excellency the Minister of Health during his participation in the second meeting of the MOH Executive Board for the year 1435H, over which he presided. He lauded the accomplishment of the MOH employees over the current fiscal year, by achieving the optimal use of the allocations of the MOH budget. This has proven of immense help for citizens, by providing them with high-quality health services, in pursuit of gaining their satisfaction, improving health services, and raising the performance quality of MOH facilities, thus bringing into reality the MOH slogan: “Patient First!” MOH employees make every effort to serve patients, and maintain their health and safety. “In so doing,” Dr. al-Rabeeah said, “we are proceeding from a staunch belief that the patient is always right. Thorough attention is paid to him, and concerted efforts are exerted to meet his needs.” He called upon all MOH employees to continue to exert their utmost efforts to fulfill patients' health requirements, and accomplish more and more achievements covering all MOH utilities, Allah willing.
Within the same vein, the MOH Spokesman, Dr. Khaled Marghalani, pointed out that the Ministry has expanded in establishing specialized centers. “Right now,” he said, “the Ministry has nine cardiology centers, and underway is the establishment of other three centers. Besides, the Ministry has operated four endocrinology centers over the period from 1430 to 1434H, and underway is the establishment of other three centers, thus bringing the total number of endocrinology centers to seven.” The Ministry has set as a target establishing a specialized cardiology center, and an endocrinology center in each of the Kingdom's regions, to be added to the specialized centers at the five medical cities. The efforts have borne fruit, thank Allah; under-5 mortality has substantially declined from 44 deaths per 1.000 children in 1990 to 12 deaths per 1.000 children in 2012. Also, the infant mortality rate has declined from 34 deaths per 1.000 children in 1990 to 8 deaths per 1.000 children in 2012. Likewise, the neonatal mortality rate has declined from 20 deaths per 1.000 children in 1990 to 5 deaths per 1.000 children in 2012. The mortality of mothers has been curbed from 48 deaths per 100.000 mothers in 1990 to 14 deaths per 100.000 mothers in 2012.
Under-5 mortality rate
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44 deaths per 1.000 children |
12 deaths per 1.000 children |
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Infant mortality rate
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34 deaths per 1.000 children
|
8 deaths per 1.000 children |
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Neonatal mortality rate
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20 deaths per 1.000 children
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5 deaths per 1.000 children |
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Mother mortality rate
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48 deaths per 100.000 mothers
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14 deaths per 100.000 mothers |
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The Ministry, over the last year – 1434H, provided its services to more than 66 million frequenters, through its hospitals and health centers. The total of beneficiaries is 11.4 million, whereas the number of those who frequented to primary health care centers is 55 million. Over and above, the Ministry conducted over 147 million lab and radiographic tests. The number of those who have been hospitalized is some 1.7 million. The Ministry conducted some 450.000 surgeries, and 262.000 birth-giving cases.
Dr. Marghalani went on to say that, further to the achievements accomplished and the services provided to citizens, the Ministry is witnessing a comprehensive developmental momentum involving all its utilities. The Ministry has worked hard on the improvement of its services, and embracing institutional work. The MOH ten-year strategy (1431-1440H), which has started since Dr. al-Rabeeah was named minister of health, is centered upon adopting the integrated and inclusive health care, placing particular emphasis on the scientific work.
The strategy aims, in addition, to entrench the culture of institutional work, promote quality, measure and monitor performance, attract qualified calibers, and develop human resources, not to forget the development of e-health, information systems, as well as the optimal use of resources, and applying health economics and providing the necessary finance.
Dr. Marghalani went on to say, “The achievements and developmental programs include the following projects.”:
1) The National Project for Integrated and Comprehensive Health Care
This includes:
- Primary Health Care Centers Projects: regarded as the one of the main pillars of the National Project for Integrated and Comprehensive Health Care. A number of 822 health centers have been established over the past three years, and underway is the establishment of 93 centers, in addition to awarding the parcels needed to build 756 other centers, thus bringing the number of centers recently established to 1.671 centers. The number of frequenters of these centers is 55 million per year. And the number of functioning primary health care centers has risen from 1.905 in 1430H to 2.169 in 1434H. And by adding the under-construction centers, the number will leap up to 2.750 centers.
- Hospitals: 79 hospitals (with a total capacity of 12.163 beds) have been operated over the past five years. By the end of the ten-year strategic plan (in 1440H), the number of beds is projected to amount to 72.525.
- Medical cities: The Ministry of Health, pursuant to the insightful vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, may Allah protect him, has been taking the lead, since 1430H, in embracing the provision of level-4 health services; a specialized level which is newly introduced and applied in the Kingdom for the first time. In this spirit, five medical cities have been established within the framework of the National Project for Integrated and Comprehensive Health Care. Collectively, they add a total of 6.200 clinical beds. These centers contain a variety of specialist hospital and centers for endocrinology, neurology, complicated and critical surgeries, cardiology, radiotherapy, transplantation ophthalmology and other rare specialties.
As said, there are five medical cities: King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh to serve the inhabitants of the central regions, King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah to serve the inhabitants of the western regions, King Faisal Medical City to serve the inhabitants of the southern regions, Prince Mohamed bin Abdulaziz Medical City to serve the inhabitants of the northern regions, and King Khaled Medical City to serve the inhabitants of the Eastern Region. Underway is the establishment of the two medical cities in the northern and southern regions. And the tenders of the two medical cities in Makkah and the Eastern Region will be awarded soon.
2) Improvement of Health Services:
Dr. Marghalani affirmed that the Ministry of Health shows keen interest to improving its services. To that end, it has launched a bundle of various quality programs meant to heighten the medical performance. This bundle includes a program for medical facilities accreditation. Fifty hospitals have obtained the accreditation of the Central Board for Accreditation of Health Institutions (CBAHI), and underway is the accreditation of 40 other hospitals. In addition, 15 hospitals have gained the JCI accreditation, whereas 21 other hospitals have been nominated for the same accreditation.
Moreover, the Ministry has developed the Clinical Audit Program, which follows up 49 clinical indicators at 90 hospitals. That is to be added to the Critical Errors Detecting Program, which records and analyses medical errors, and develops a methodology to avoid their repetition. Also, there are the Doctor Productivity Program, the Drug Safety Program, the International Medical Coding Program, and the Productivity Improvement Program at operation theaters, ICUs and emergency sections.
3) Adoption of New Qualitative Service Programs:
Starting from 1430H, the Ministry has adopted a qualitative package of the new service programs, including:
- One-Day Surgery Program: this program has managed to improve the percentage of one day surgery from 2% in 1430H to 42% in 1434H.
- Home Medicine Program: this Program is used to provide all the services needed by a patient; given that the number of beneficiaries of this program reached over 33,000 patients till now since the inauguration of the program in 1430H.
- Visiting Physician Program: this program works on attracting technical cadres of consultants specialized in rare specialties from within and outside the Kingdom to work in its regions and provinces. The total number of the attracted consultants reached 3025 consultants since the inauguration of the program in 1430H.
- Program of Service Purchase from the Private Sector: a patient who does not find a bed in MOH's hospitals is referred into the private sector. This service is widely used in the intensive care units for adults, children and newborns, as well as the emergency departments. The total sum paid on this program during the last year reached SR 718 million.
- Program of Dialysis Services Purchase from the Private Sector; the total sum allocated for this program during this year (1435H) reached SR 1.9 billion. This shows the ministry's keenness to expand its services and take advantage of the private sector to serve the citizens.
4) Programs of Administrative Performance Improvement: Dr. Marghalani pointed out that the Ministry has adopted various programs to improve administrative performance, more importantly;
- Referral Program: this program aims to refer the patients among the Kingdom's hospitals in an electronic, fast and clear manner. The “Referral E-Program” endeavors to facilitate the process of referring patients who need to be treated in specialized hospitals in any city in the Kingdom; knowing that, it will serve to connect all governmental hospitals to all health facilities indoors. Some 86,587 cases have been transferred during the past year.
- Media and Health Awareness Information Center: the Ministry launches, through this center, awareness programs and campaigns throughout the year in order to provide medical advice and respond to callers' inquiries via MOH's toll-free number: 8002494444. The Ministry makes use of the social networking websites in activating the health awareness programs and health promotion.
- 937-Service: the Ministry has established an emergency call centre working 24/7 to serve patients, provide ambulatory services and meet the needs of patients. Some 143,404 calls were received and 1815 cases were carried to referral hospitals.
- Establishment of Patient Rights and Relations Department in all Hospitals and Health Directorates: this program serves as the link between the Ministry and the citizens, knowing that, it was created upon the desire of the Ministry of Health to strengthen and develop the process of communication with the beneficiaries of its services in all health facilities through solving their problems and facilitating the process of delivering the appropriate health services for them.
The Ministry managed, through this program, to electronically monitor and identify the level of patients and beneficiaries' satisfaction with the services provided in 100 hospitals. The Ministry has also provided e-service "Citizen Voice" in order to receive complaints and suggestions of patients and beneficiaries on the services offered by the Ministry.
5) Preventive Medicine and Health Promotion:
The Ministry established a public health department that meets the standards of preventive programs and combats non-communicable genetic diseases as well as the communicable diseases. The department comprises a sub-department for the preventive health and another sub-department for primary health care. The Ministry has also implemented 37 preventive programs, including Anti-Smoking Program, Healthy Marriage Program, National Immunity Program, AIDS Combat Program, Diabetes Awareness Program, Field Epidemiology Program, Cancer Early Detection Program and Obesity Program.
The Ministry has set comprehensive health programs to achieve its preventive objectives; such as Expanded Immunization Program, Epidemiological Surveillance Program, Hajj Preventive Medicine Program, and Joint Diseases Control Program.
Furthermore, the number of the diseases targeted by expanded immunization vaccines, in the Kingdom in 1434H, reached 24 diseases compared to 5 diseases in 1399H, whereas the proportion of immunization reached 98% of the basic vaccines, leading to a major reduction in the rates of the targeted diseases in this program. In addition, the Ministry of Health pays close attention to the immunization program since its inauguration, and the Kingdom, may Allah protect it, has supported such an attitude, as evident in the fact that in 1399H (corresponding to 1979) the King's approval of linking the babies' birth certificate to a list of the targeted diseases that are to be immunized against was issued.
The Kingdom has entered into the phase of eradicating the measles, German measles (Rubella), and mumps. In the beginning of the current academic year, the Ministry has launched a comprehensive vaccination campaign against the measles, rubella, and mumps for 9 months to 24 years age group, and such a procedure will continue in the next years, Allah willing; in the hope that such diseases will be eradicated from the Kingdom by the coming years.
6) Qualification of the Workforce:
Dr. Marghalani pointed out that the Ministry works on qualifying the workforce. The number of MOH's scholars to the foreign countries increased from 1049 scholars in 1431H to 1189 scholars in 1434H. Some 2,500 seats have been deducted from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Program for Foreign Scholarships, with a rate of 500 scholars a year. The number of internal scholarships increased from 1852 employees in 1431H to 3892 employees in 1434H.
7) Information Technology Service:
Dr. Marghalani said the Ministry of Health launches a number of e-health programs, including Health Information System (HIS), Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Cloud Computing System, Epidemiological Surveillance System (HESN), Pre-Marital Screening System, Neonatal Protection System, E-Poison Control System, and E-Telemedicine System.
Furthermore, the Ministry has accomplished linking most of the its hospitals to an electronic system to register and follow up the serious medical incidents, which take place in hospitals within up to 48 hours as maximum; and the steps of linking the private sector hospitals will take place in the forthcoming period. Also, the Ministry has ended of designing a unified system of multi-media communications, allowing the user to receive the coming audio and visual messages and fax at their email or their cell-phones. The Ministry's 150.000 employees will be linked in the first phase.
8) Medical Supply and Equipment:
Dr. Marghalani said the Ministry has developed the information centers of medicines and poisons, and has provided them with the internationally-accredited programs to cope with the development of health services, as such centers have been provided with (Micromedex) program, in addition to preparing a project to develop pharmacological services through preparing the intravenous nutrition and solutions using the highest standards and safety.
Meanwhile, the Ministry has embarked on establishing 29 warehouses in the first phase, and 100 warehouses will be built, Allah willing, in the second phase. The budget of the medical supply has also increased from SR 2.8 billion in 1430H to SR 4.8 billion in 1434H. The medicine guide was developed in terms of quality and quantity; given that the number of medicines has increased from 800 to 1200 items in 1434H.
Marghalani stressed that the Ministry of Health is undergoing a comprehensive quantum leap, covering all its services and facilities, which are entirely harnessed to serving patients, preserving their safety, and gaining their satisfaction. In this spirit, it has carried a number of programs aiming at serving patients and putting the slogan (Patient First) into action.
The MOH pays currently great attention to the citizen. Further, the Ministry has at hand a lot of developmental projects, under implementation or construction, which were approved to be included in the MOH's budget. These projects include developing and constructing medical cities, specialized and general hospitals, and medical towers agreed to be implemented by the Royal Decree. These projects are to cover the entire Kingdom's regions and governorates and they will, Allah willing, contribute to advancing the level of the health services.
Statistical Figures (1434H)
| Number of surgeries |
451,180 operations |
|
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| Number of visits to MOH hospitals |
11,672,310 visits |
|
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| Number of visits to health centers |
53,574376 visits |
|
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| Number of birth cases |
256,299 cases |
|
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| Number of laboratory tests |
149,404,465 tests |
|
|---|
| Number of x-ray examinations |
6,189,589 examinations |
|
|---|
| Number of beds in MOH hospitals |
38,739 beds |
|
|---|
| Number of hospitalized cases |
1,686,352 cases |
|
|---|
| Number of patients referred outside for treatment |
897 patients |
|
|---|
| Number of patients referred inside for treatment |
47,980 patients |
|
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| Total number of beneficiaries of the Home Medicine Program |
33,713 cases |
|
|---|
| Number of hospitals applying the Home Medicine Program |
178 hospitals |
|
|---|
| Number of one-day surgeries |
65,305 one-day surgeries |
The number of one-day surgeries conducted in MOH hospitals has reached 65,305 surgeries in 1434H. |
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| Number of hospitals applying the One-Day Surgery Program (100 beds or more) |
100 hospitals |
The number of MOH hospitals, with the capacity of 100 beds or more, that have applied the One-Day Surgery Program, has reached 100 hospitals. |
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| Number of Projects of Primary Healthcare Centers |
822 projects |
93 projects are under construction. 756 centers are to be offered for tenders. |
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| Number of MOH hospitals with CBAHI Certificate |
52 hospitals |
|
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| Number of facilities to be granted CBAHI Certificate |
29 facilities |
|
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| Number of hospitals accredited by JCI |
15 hospitals |
|
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| Number of hospitals to be accredited by JCI |
21 hospitals |
|
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| Number of visitors of dental clinics (2721 clinics) |
4,288,001 visitors |
|
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| Number of visitors treated by the blood technology (143 centers) s |
9317 visitor |
|
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| Number of dialysis sessions |
1,453,452 sessions |
|
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| Number of tumor centers |
4 centers |
3 centers are under construction. |
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