The World Health Organization (WHO) has commended the Health Crown Preventive Program carried out by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to prevent factors and risks of non-communicable diseases and reduce their occurrence amongst all segments of the community. This came during a joint meeting held between a delegation of the WHO experts to the Kingdom and a number of the Ministry of Health (MOH) officials at the headquarters of the ministry two days ago.
Meanwhile, the WHO experts lauded the proper timing of the visit, the sound selection of Al-Jouf region for implementing the program as well as the accomplished campaigns set for raising health awareness on the risk factors causing genetic and chronic diseases, and promoting health practices amongst all community members, in addition to conducting regular examinations for detecting and intervening early to prevent non-communicable diseases and the risk factors causing them in the primary healthcare centers in Al-Jouf.
Within the same vein, the delegation member, Dr. Jaku Tomlito, reviewed the Finnish experience in reducing mortality rates through giving all public and private sectors the opportunity to contribute to providing an appropriate environment, promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing incidences of genetic and chronic diseases, pointing out that the Kingdom can make use of this experience.
After meeting with the WHO's delegation on behalf of the Deputy Minister of Health for Public Health, Dr. Abdulaziz bin Saeed, and receiving the delegation's evaluation of the program, the Assistant Deputy Minister for Primary Health Care, Dr. Muhammad bin Omar Ba-Suleiman, said that the meeting has reviewed the results of assessing the program by the WHO experts after their visit to Al-Jouf region, which is implementing the program as a first phase. "The get-together reviewed also the achieved awareness and preventive goals aiming to reduce death and disease incidences and curb complications of diseases," he said.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Ba-Suleiman thanked the WHO for the technical and logistic support it provides for the Kingdom to ensure success of such programs, which are carried out by the MOH for improving health conditions amongst all segments of the community.
Representing the MOH at the meeting were the Director-General of Genetic and Chronic Diseases Control, Dr. Mohammed bin Yahia Saeedi, the Director-General of Health Centers and Programs Affairs, Dr. Issam bin Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, and the Director of the Health Crown Preventive Program, Dr. Ahmed bin Gamil Al Medani.
The WHO delegation, meanwhile, included the Regional Consultant for Non-Communicable Diseases, Dr. Ibtihal Al-Fadil, and the Consultant for Prevention of Cardiac Diseases, Dr. Jaku Tomlito.
It's noteworthy that the meeting came following a visit made by the Organization's delegation to Al-Jouf region which embraces the (Health Crown Preventive Program) to follow up work progress and recognize the achieved practical and scientific steps as well as reviewing the obstacles facing the program in a bid to overcome them, and defining performance indicators as a prelude to circulate the program over all regions of the Kingdom at a later stage.
It's worth mentioning here that the Health Crown Preventive Program is reckoned a community program set for the prevention against risks and factors of non-communicable diseases as an effective means to reduce rates of non-communicable disease incidences and to stress the need for improving preventive practices and integrating them in the primary healthcare centers.
The vision of the program is to make it a role model at the regional and gulf levels, while its mission is to provide preventive services from the first and second classes for all age groups against non-communicable diseases, as well as risks and factors of chronic diseases. In addition, the objective of the project is to reduce rates of non-communicable diseases in the Kingdom through the community engagement programs.