His Excellency the Vice Minister of Health, Mr. Hamad Al-Duweila‘, inaugurated yesterday a workshop for directors of training and scholarships in regions and provinces under the title: “Strategic Initiatives and Objectives of Training and Scholarship as a Key Factor for Human Resources Development”. The two-day workshop was organized by the Ministry of Health (MOH), represented by the Training and Scholarships General Department, last Wednesday at its headquarters in Riyadh.
In his speech, Al-Duweila highlighted that the human resources is considered one of the most important resources in any establishment or organization, whether a public or private sector. “Give me a distinctive team and I will make miracles and accept any challenges,” he said He went on saying that the MOH will focus on building and qualifying competencies, and this workshop is one of the channels through which the MOH builds and qualifies competencies.
“The MOH adopts the transparency principle, and I firmly believe in working with absolute transparency. The MOH is currently working against the clock and taking accelerated steps to keep up with the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, May Allah protect him, for serving the citizen in line with the transformation plan which includes society, economy and governmental bodies,” Al-Duweila‘ underscored. This plan, he said, is based on the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to make the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a successful and pioneering model at all areas all over the the world.
He pointed out that the MOH is working on developing skills and applying leaders development plans for making leaders, by means of detecting weak points and then strengthening them through training, ” he said, revealing that a number of MOH's employees have undergone evaluation tests, and ambitious and precise plans were developed to qualifying them and giving them the opportunity to lead, whether in their current positions or other higher ones, based on the results of the tests.
“The human development can be achieved through science, knowledge, continuous education and keeping up with all new technology and sciences. Training is reckoned on of the MOH’s cornerstones, and without human development we cannot achieve our goals,” stated Al-Duweila‘.
Besides, he highlighted the importance of information technology, noting that the Ministry had recently held coordination meetings with several parties in this regard, and is so keen to benefit from the expertise of other sectors, in such a manner that serves the public interest, and achieves the desired benefit. He also stressed that the Ministry is striving to improve its electronic services and achieve excellence in this field.
Within the same vein, Al-Duweila‘ underlined that the MOH is keen to attract qualified competencies, and achieve the optimum utilization of all available human resources; as it works within the context of its current plan to develop the potentials of its employees, and raise the level of their performance; in an endeavor to improve the health services, and meet the citizens’ needs.
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Health for Human Resources Development, Mr. Abdul-Hadi Al-Mansouri, confirmed that a great support has been shown to human resources from His Excellency the Minister of Health and His Excellency the Vice Minister. He added that the attendance of HE the Vice Minister at this workshop is a good evidence for his concern, and supporting the human cadres is one of the main pillars, the matter which comes as part of the MOH's initiatives to be announced over the coming days.
Al-Mansouri went on to say that the MOH has exerted efforts to activate the role of human resources, starting from opening the door for transferring about 4500 employees, which is considered as the largest transfer movement witnessed by the Ministry, in addition to that the human resources have developed a transparency mechanism for selecting competencies in "Your Job and Scholarship Program". He pointed out that the human resources is striving to reach the highest level of professionalism in the field of human resources development; to design and implement programs and initiatives which primarily seek to upgrade and qualify the national cadres in such manner which commensurate with the community’s aspirations.
On the other hand, the Director of the Training and Scholarships Department, Dr. Mansour Al-Yami provided a brief visual presentation about the Training and Scholarships General Department, during which he reviewed the achievements and strategy of the Department. He highlighted that the most important objective of the Department is to build qualified staff and hone the skills and potentials of the manpower. He pointed out that the responsibilities of the department include planning and participating in the development of human resources strategy, upgrading potentials and raising the efficiencies of the health practitioners, as well as reinforcing the international and local cooperation, given that five agreements were signed with leading international universities, that is to be added to implementing the annual plan and monitoring the performance through following-up the application of policies and procedures of the Department and its administrative responsibilities.
Al-Yami revealed that the total number of trainees amounted to 25,691, and the accredited hours of continuing education amounted to 5,355 hours, the accredited hours of continuing medical education (CME) amounted to 698 hours with 8171 trainees. He added that the number of delegates on bridging program amounted to 3981 and the total number of non-physicians delegates for postgraduate studies is 126 and the number of physician delegates is 240.
The workshop discussed major topics related to the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (rules and regulations) and reviewed the best local practices in training domain, the modern approaches to human resources development and the methodologies of Training and Scholarship Department, in addition to the technical skills and simulation centers and the financial challenges facing the training and scholarship departments and the recent experience of the scholarship website and the policies and procedures of self-employment. They have also addressed the implementation of training strategies, facing challenges and implementation of initiatives to improve performance. At the end of the first day, the workshop issued statistical reports and recommendations.
On other hand, HE the Vice Minister of Health honored Dr. Walid Saleh Al-Salem, who works at the Vector Control Department affiliated to the General Agency for Public Health, for his excellence during the master's and doctoral periods in the field of the endemic diseases control and for his outstanding publication in peer-reviewed journals. It is worth mention that Dr. Al-Salem has been hosted by a British Parliamentary Committee along with 6 researchers from all over the United Kingdom, to view their researches. Some of these researches were published and presented to the British Parliament, while the rest are currently being published, which revolve around the development of laboratory reagents for leishmaniasis, as well as evaluating the endemic diseases control plans and the resistance of the Leishmania to medicines. In addition, he participated in assessing the status of leishmaniasis and dengue fever in conflicts and war zones. The Vice Minister lauded Dr. Salem’s excellence and urged him to keep on research domain and contribute effectively in the health sector.