On the occasion of the 87th National Day, Minister of Health Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah has highlighted the comprehensive renaissance witnessed in the Kingdom.
In his statement he said, "Our country, its wise leadership and peoples live today an auspicious occasion, the anniversary of unification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by its founder late King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, May Allah make his abode in His Paradise".
"On this glorious day, we are rightly proud of the comprehensive renaissance witnessed in all sectors which embodies the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz to provide all means of comfort and decent living for citizens", Dr. Al-Rabiah added.
He lauded the care and attention the Kingdom, since its foundation, has paid to health sector, as well as its great efforts and support to maintain the health and safety of citizen, and to build healthy generations to sustain our homeland’s development and progress. In this respect, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz has issued his approval to adopt public health as a policy and priority in all systems and regulations for disease control and prevention. Making public health a priority in all policies alleviates the burden of diseases and reflects keenness and concern of our wise leadership about citizens' health and providing them with medical care.
“MOH has continued implementation of many programs and activities in the field of public health such as educational health campaigns and health enhancement campaigns that witnessed great interactions from target groups and covered a number of important health issues.” Dr. Al-Rabiah stressed.
"During the previous period the MOH has realized many achievements in its various sectors and services with the implementation of the health performance program which seeks to boost productivity, performance quality and efficiency of hospitals, in line with strategic objectives of the National Transformation Plan 2020 and Kingdom’s Vision 2030. The program features 70 main hospitals, where over 40 performance indicators are applied to seven service units. Thank Allah the MOH has been able to greatly reduce waiting times at emergencies, outpatient clinics and admission, in addition to one-day surgery. This has contributed to boosting satisfaction of patients and beneficiaries with services provided by health facilities", he said.
He also said, “For the first time since its relaunch and improvement of its services, the 937 call center currently receives more than 16,000 calls daily, with a threefold increase of target users, and raising the rate of beneficiaries' satisfaction with its services to 82%,. In addition to that, 9 hospitals with a total capacity of 1,850 beds have been inaugurated in different parts of the country, as well as Al Harm Hospital for Emergency with 50 beds, 10 of them are for well-equipped ICU units.
Then he reviewed MOH’s latest efforts, including the recently launched campaign “Makkah, the City of Safe Heart,” This initiative aims to train 5,000 non-healthcare workers to deal with heart attacks outside the health facilities, starting with the Holy Mosque and its surrounding central area to serve pilgrims and Umrah performers throughout the year.
“The launch of the health system initiative,” he said, “comes within the MOH's initiatives for the National Transformation Program in an endeavor to provide an added value for MOH through improvement of health outcomes, access to health services and means of providing healthcare to patients, as well as provision of integrated healthcare up to the highest international standards.
Concluding his statement, he prayed to Allah Almighty to perpetuate the grace of Islam, security, safety and welfare for our homeland, and to protect the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense HRH Prince Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz.