His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah, has approved the decision of the MOH Private Health Institutions' Violations Consideration Committee at the Eastern Region Health Affairs General Directorate, fining a Saudi physician, working at a clinic pertinent to a private company, SR 10.000; due to publishing a patient’s picture without his permission. In doing so, the physician violated Article (11) of the Health Profession Practice Law, which prohibits such a practice considering it of the patient’s secretes.
For its part, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has underlined that it would publish such decisions, once they become final, warning violators that it will take all the statutory procedures, including the cautionary closure, towards any health institution that does not comply with the required quality standards of health services; in an endeavor to oblige such institutions to improve their conditions and redress all irregularities observed there, pursuant to the statutory procedures.
Within the same vein, the Ministry calls upon the private health sector, out of its responsibility as an effective and strategic partner in the health development process, to comply with the required scientific quality standards in order to provide the beneficiaries with safe and high quality medical services commensurate with the responsibility and aspirations of the Ministry, its officials and the service providers. By doing so, the best health services will be provided in line with the highest international levels, focusing on the patient's health, and bringing into effect the MOH's slogan: “Patient First”.