His Excellency the Acting Minister of Health, Eng. Adel bin Muhammad Faqih, met the Duke of York (in UK), His Royal Highness Prince Andrew and his accompanying delegation. They met in Riyadh, on Thursday, November 18th, 2014 (corresponding to Muharram 25th, 1436H). During the meeting, they discussed the ways to boost the present cooperation between the two countries, especially in the health domain. Besides, they touched upon the updates of the Saudi British partnership in providing the health care and training.
The meeting highlighted the importance of opening new avenues for cooperation in IT solutions for the primary clinics in health facilities, as well as training and educating MOH staff. In addition, Prince Andrew focused on the developments in the health care sector since his last visit, meanwhile describing them as positive.
For his part, Eng. Faqih pointed out that the Ministry is continuing its efforts in sketching health plans, and determining the specialties needed in the health care sector. Furthermore, he indicated that current initiatives in the health care domain require vigorous partnership with other governmental agencies; the matter which will contribute to its success significantly, in addition to getting into partnerships with international experts.
Within the same vein, Eng. Faqih raised some challenges facing the health sector, including the decline of Saudi nursing staff for several reasons; the matter which Prince Andrew has described as a global challenge. Moreover, the meeting underlined the importance of increasing the capacity of nursing specialties in the Kingdom, in addition to discussing ways to reinforce mutual cooperation for expanding the capacity of medical specialties.