As part of the incessant efforts exerted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to control the Middle East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), Dr. Abdul-Aziz bin Saeed, the Deputy Minister of Health for Public Health, presided over the joint meeting of the leaders of health affairs directorates in all regions of the Kingdom. The meeting was organized by the Ministry with the aim of identifying responsibilities and consolidating efforts to contain the Corona disease.
Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Saeed explained that the aim of the meeting is to urge the staff of the health affairs directorates in all regions to exert more effort, and enhance cooperation with one another, as well as identifying the responsibilities and roles to be taken over by workers in infection control, director general of public health, and director general of health affairs in each region, so as to contribute to controlling the Corona disease.
The Deputy Minister for Public Health said, "It is a joint operation between the public health and therapeutic medicine. Besides, the presence of all parties at the same table would facilitate communication between them. The goal behind identifying responsibilities among them is to facilitate the work and support the MOH's Agency for Public Health to uphold its duties, and accordingly support the Command and Control Center to do its job as well, because if we all work as a one unit the result will live up to our expectations, as well as the expectations of the Minister, Allah willing."
He added, "During this meeting, two questionnaires were distributed to all participants in the meeting, the first one was to find out some shortcomings among the health professionals. The same questionnaire had previously been applied at King Khalid University Hospital, National Guard Hospitals and Ministry of Defense Hospitals, and that is why we decided to apply them to health professionals at the MOH's hospitals, especially those assuming a leading role in fighting the epidemics, namely Corona disease. That is because our knowledge of the shortcomings and practice-related problems would help us to address such shortcomings and achieve the desired goal. While the second questionnaire was meant to identify the difficulties facing the health professionals, and to decide on what we can do to help them overcome such difficulties. The output of both questionnaires shall be compared with that of the field surveys that have been conducted thus far, so that we can bridge that gap."
Dr. Abdul-Aziz bin Saeed pointed out that the meeting will be followed by many steps, as separate meetings will be held with each region in order to prepare the workers in the field of infection control and public health in an accurate and systematic way. He further expounded that the Corona cases reviewed last month indicate that they are on the rise. The Ministry, for its part, will spare no effort to curb the spread of the disease. It has become evident that the virus affects only a rather limited number of cases outside hospitals, and then multiplies and gets transmitted inside hospitals. Therefore, the Ministry exerts every possible effort to curb the spread of the disease in hospitals through infection control teams, and by way of consolidated efforts and support from the health affairs directorates and health assistants.
The meeting which lasted for almost 3 hours discussed some obstacles facing health professionals, and means to overcome them, as well as of the ways to promote cooperation between the workers in the health affairs directorates, and defining the roles and responsibilities to be assigned to each of the relevant parties.