Director-General of the Executive Board of the GCC Health Ministers' Council, Prof. Tawfiq Khoja, revealed new Gulf arrangements concerning expats screenings and prevention against Ebola virus. Addressing the opening session of the 81st regular meeting of the Executive Board of the GCC Heath Ministers Council today (Wednesday) morning, which will last for two days and is held at the headquarters of the Executive Board, Khoja said that “the Executive Authority will discuss a number of technical issues including the fight against non-communicable diseases, complementary medicine, cancer control, standards and regulations for cooperation with the Gulf health societies, anti-smoking, world health survey, occupational health, statistical bulletin and basic health indicators, Gulf day of patient rights, health promotion, the scientific meeting of the GCC health ministers for administrative and financial affairs, improvement of work at the executive board, expats and Ebola virus.” The members of the executive authority, according to Khoja, will also discuss the electronic link gate between the information centers in the council states and executive board, promotion of the health information systems, health portal of the council states, in addition to other administrative, financial and organizational issues.
Khoja added that the members of the executive authority will review unified purchasing, pharmaceutical products tenders, hospital equipping supplies, supplies of artificial kidney centers, supplies of dental care, supplies of medical laboratories and blood transfusion services, supplies of cardiovascular surgery and interventional radiology, supplies of ENT, ophtalmological supplies, supplies of orthopedic and spine surgery, and supplies of medical rehabilitation. In addition to that, they will discuss the central drug registration, medicine pricing, budget of the executive board, depositary credit fund and researches, and technical sub-committees of the executive board.
Prof. Tawfiq Khoja went on saying that the meeting will discuss the arrangements for holding the 78th meeting of the GCC Health Minister Council in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on February 4th-5th, 2015, as well as the approval of the proposed agenda by the ministers. Furthermore, he expressed his thanks and gratitude for Dr. Salah Al-Mazrou and Dr. Ziyad Memesh, the KSA former members of the executive authority for their efforts exerted during their membership of the authority.
Also, he expressed his thanks and gratitude for HE the Kuwaiti Minister of Health, and chairman of the 39th session of the GCC Health Ministers Council, Dr. Ali bin Saad Al-Obaidi, and member of the executive authority and assistant deputy minister of health for technical affairs, Dr. Qais Al-Dewairi for the generous support for all activities of the executive board and its successive development programs, as this year meetings were accompanied by continuous momentum of health events and valuable scientific gatherings at the GCC states level as well as regional and international levels.
He pointed out that the council and the executive board obtained the New Age Award for Technology, Innovation and Quality, as well as the European Golden Award of quality 2014. “In addition to that,” he said, “the director-general of the Executive Board of the GCC Health Ministers' Council owned the Arab Integrity Award 2014 as per a letter from Her Highness Shaikha Nawal bint Hamoud Al-Sabah, Chairwoman of the Arab Union of Fighting Counterfeiting and Forgery, an affiliate of the Arab League. He said the award will be organized, Allah willing, towards mid-December, praying for Allah to make the meeting successful, so as to come up with constructive recommendations that meet the aspirations and ambitions of our rulers, may Allah preserve them.
It noteworthy that the meeting witnessed the honoring of the Advisor to the Food and Drug Authority, Dr. Saleh Ba-wazeer for the efforts he exerted throughout his work with the Executive Board and his achievements with the Gulf unified purchasing program.