His Excellency the Acting Minister of Health, Eng. Adel bin Muhammad Faqih has confirmed that one of the priorities he has and still working on since his assignment by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, May Allah protect him, to take over the Ministry of Health (MOH), is to deal with the Coronavirus.
"Since the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has assigned me to take over the Ministry of Health, one of the priorities that I have worked, and still working on is the dealing with the challenge of the Coronavirus and with the grace of Allah Almighty firstly and then the efforts exerted by you and by others in our community who are interested in the health affairs, I can say: Thanks to Allah this challenge is less dangerous now, although we are still dealing with the same caution and same attention, and we must not rely on each other in a way that manacles the due precautionary measures which boost our ability to deal with such a challenge," said Eng. Faqih.
Eng. Faqih has explained that many of the employees of the MOH have responded to the message he sent via the email saying: "What if you were a minister of health?" The answers were collected, categorized, classified and analyzed in order for the Ministry to create a list of applicable and feasible ideas. The workshop will put forward many consultations on the prioritization of those ideas in order to clarify the ones the Ministry could interact with, so that they can be brought into force as soon as possible.
This came during His Excellency Eng. Faqih's inauguration last Sunday of the first series of meetings and workshops to review the Ministry's strategy and consult with a group of health affairs directors in the western, northern and southern regions. The ceremony was held at the Jeddah's Intercontinental Hotel.
He added, "At the same time I have started with my colleagues at the Ministry a project named "The One-Hundred-Day" which targets reviewing a large group of files during 100 days. Of course I have started this project after resuming office at the Ministry, and with consultation with you, we will be quickly reaching a set of initiatives and a set of gains on which we can work together to achieve a tangible difference realized by the citizen and beneficiaries of the MOH's services."
After opening the workshop, the Minister said "We meet here today to review together the MOH's strategy and agree with each other on our priorities and the issues that enable us to carry out our ambitions in order to achieve what our leaders entrusted us to do for serving the citizens of this country.
He added that this meeting is our second gathering, whereas the first one was with a group of fifty colleagues of the Ministry and others, and there will be other meetings this week in the cities of Riyadh and Dammam and these meetings will continue to make sure that all leaders and colleagues with major responsibilities at the MOH have been given the opportunity so that we can negotiate with them and listen to them as they will participate in the formulation of a vision and priorities for the MOH in the next phase.
The Minister also indicated that the MOH's strategy has been developed since 2010 for ten coming years and the main features will be displayed to the participants in the workshop, so as to be able to collectively think of the points that should be corrected, add or extensively discussed so that we are able to handle them and deal with them.
In his speech, the Acting Minister has focused on two main points saying: "I want to focus on two main points and a core value hoping that we agree on considering it as a fundamental base on which we will work together. The first point is that I am committed before you as colleagues in one team to working with each other, supporting each other, advising each other and backing each other, hoping that such spirit, the spirit of the joint social responsibility, will prevail over the whole cooperation process that I am looking forward to, hoping to walk it together. And the second point is that the primary objective of this workshop is to come out with a specific set of gains on which we will work quickly, with you being the partners in identifying, implementing, reviewing and following up the priorities, until we are able, Allah willing, to bring them into force."
Eng. Adel Faqih concluded, "The last point I would like to talk about is the core point on which we should build our whole work, the value that I promise you to spare no efforts to abide by, hoping that everyone will do the same, is "Modesty". In fact, modesty towards Allah is a virtue and it doesn't mean to appease each other or to act in a behavior similar to modesty, but to believe in the fact that we don't have the truth alone, others may be more knowledgeable than us, we don't know everything alone, others in this hall may be more knowledgeable than us in many things, we have to benefit from each other.
"Our efforts will not yield success and be integrated and effective unless we all worked on this goal and pulled ourselves out from our selfishness and the belief in our superiority and distinction. We should show modesty and keenness to benefit from each other, as none of us whether a minister, a deputy or a manager could claim that he has the whole truth and he is the only one who understands what we need. If we abide by this value and make it applicable not only in this workshop but also in the way we treat each other and in our actions, Allah Almighty will grant us success," said Eng. Faqih, hoping that the work of all participants in this workshop and the following workshops will be a sincere work for the sake of the Almighty Allah, considering its outcomes as continuous charity in their book of deeds.
On his part, Majid Ali Basha, the Advisor to the Minister of Health and Director General of Transformation Department, has confirmed that the Acting Minister of Health has launched these workshops, the first of which started last Sunday in Jeddah, with the aim to engage everyone in the Ministry's strategy, allow experts to provide the ideas needed by the Ministry during the upcoming phase and to shed light on the aspects the Ministry is lacking and the strategy needs to add and focus on.
Basha went on saying, "His Excellency the Minister has communicated with everyone via the email and sent them a number of questions including this one, "What are the objectives, initiatives, ideas and projects that you think we are in need of them during the upcoming short period, which will be of a quick impact on the work and community?" As a result a number of the emanated ideas have been analyzed and compiled into 60 ideas, 20 of which have started as projects and initiatives, while 40 others have been submitted to the workshop today for reviewing and voting on them in order to come out with 10 ideas that we think the Ministry is in need of them to get quick gains."
He said, "The workshop was attended by about 60 people who have interacted greatly with the ideas," adding that the participants included the directors of health affairs and hospitals in the western, southern and northern regions. Basha was concluded as saying that the minister will meet the rest of the leaders from different parts of the Kingdom and the Jeddah's workshop will be repeated in Riyadh (2 workshops) and the eastern region (1 workshop).