The Deputy Minister of Health for Therapeutic Services, Dr. Tareef Alaama, issued a circular to the health affairs directorates in the regions and provinces stipulating separating medical coordination and treatment eligibility departments from the emergency and crises departments, and taking the necessary action in this regard for the benefit of the patients, as well as unifying the adopted measures on medical coordination and patient referral, and avoiding duplicating tasks between the two Departments .
This was pointed out by the Director of the Referral (Ehalati) Program, Mr. Suleiman bin Ahmad Al-Sharie‘, who said, "Within the efforts exerted to improve the work in Ehalati Program at the level of ministry headquarter and the health affairs directorates in the regions and provinces, MOH has referred 6687 patients through the program during the period from 1-10 Rajab 1436H.
Meanwhile, Al-Sharie revealed that out of the referred cases, 4465 cases (amounting to 66.8%) were approved immediately, whereas 1581 cases (about 23.6%) are still being considered, and 486 cases (at a rate of 7.3% of all referred cases) are not in need to be referred. That is to be added, he said, to 155 cases (2.3% of all referred cases) still on the waiting list.
Within the same vein, Al-Sharie indicated that the program referred 62.49% of the total cases referred by the system due to the unavailability of the medical service, 27.99% due to the unavailability of specialized physician, and 5.7% due to the unavailability of a bed, whereas 3.82% of the total referred cases by the system were referred for other reasons.
All the more, Al-Sharie explained that life-saving cases amounted to 149 cases at a rate of 2.23%, whereas the emergency cases amounted to 1463 (at a rate of 21.88%), the hospitalized cases amounted to 1572 (at a rate of 23.51%), and the cases referred to the outpatient clinics amounted to 3503 cases (at a rate of 52.39%) of all referred cases through the system.
It's worth mentioning here that ‘Ehalati’ Program is reckoned one of the new e-programs carried out by the Ministry of Health. Advantages of the program are numerous, including providing medical counseling among the physicians in the various medical facilities, to study the patient case without the need for transferring him. It also provides all the logistic and coordination requirements to refer the patient from one medical facility to another. In addition, it provides an archiving and statistic system, which contains information of the referred patients in the Kingdom’s hospitals.