The Assistant Deputy Minister of Health for Hospitals Affairs, Dr. Nehar Al-Azmi, launched yesterday, Tuesday morning, the 6th International Critical Care Conference, organized by the Saudi Critical Care Society (SCCS).
Dr. Al-Azmi underlined that organizing such a conference is an opportunity for exchanging expertise, liaison with those interested in this field from inside and outside the Kingdom, in addition to sharing with the world the gains, achievements and accumulated experiences that Saudi Arabia got to gain. "Combating the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is the most recent expertise in this regard," he noted. He further explained, "Even though close attention is to be paid to providing the most advanced medical equipments and the best experts, the work of the medical team and the integration of the critical care teams with one another and with other teams, remains the most important. Indeed, having well-trained female or male nurses who are committed to standards of monitoring the infection and patient's safety is just as important as having the best consultants in this specialty." He confirmed that commitment to standards of safety and medical practice by the health professionals, including technicians or workers, will lead – Allah willing - to saving lives of many patients, their families and the staff of the health system and hospitals.
Within the same vein, Dr. Al-Azmi said, “Nowadays, there is an inclusive approach to the patient and his family to improve the so-called patient experience.” “Such an approach,” he added, “is not limited to one aspect of treatment, but extends to include prevention, education, monitoring and execution in the public health field.” He indicated that "the Kingdom has accomplished a wide range of achievements in the field of critical care medicine, as manifested by having high-level competencies who are leading the achievements in this field, in addition to the availability of the best and most advanced equipments, buildings and development programs taking place in all health sectors. Yet the Kingdom, just like the rest of the world, is facing many emerging challenges in the health sector in general and the critical care medicine in particular."
Coming on the top of these challenges, he said, is the large gap in the numbers of the specialists; including physicians, nurses and technicians. Such a challenge, he confirmed, is facing the whole world. "There is a need for more coordination on the long term between the planners, specialists and scientific societies and the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, universities and academic institutions for working relentlessly to face this challenge, in order to achieve our duties towards Almighty Allah in the first place, then our leadership and our community," he elaborated.
On his part, the Chairman of the Boards of Directors of the Saudi Critical Care Society, Dr. Yassir bin Hussein Mandourah, highlighted the role of the society in developing the health staff in the Kingdom since 10 years ago. In this regard he said, the society has provided training for more than 60.000 of MOH's staff including training contracts in the peripheral regions and training scholarships of Prince Sultan's endowment amounting to 1500 seats annually in each conference.
He added that the society cooperated with the Ministry of Health in developing work measures and policies in 2006, which was updated in 2012. He pointed out that the latest instance of cooperation between the two parties was in combating MERS-CoV, as training was provided for more than 3.000 health professionals in Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah in dealing with the Corona and operating the advanced equipments of the critical care. In addition, he said, the society also contributes to providing the qualified staff for the seasonal campaigns of Hajj and Umrah.
It's worth mentioning that the conference witnessed participation of the European Society for Critical Care and the American Society for Critical Care in addition to more than eleven Saudi medical societies. The Conference, also, discussed and reviewed the latest scientific findings in the field of critical care, noting that the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCHS) has accredited 24 hours of continued medical education for all specialties in the critical care.