According to Taif Health Affairs, the anti-smoking clinics received 3,878 outpatients, (with 45% of smokers have quitted smoking) last year (1438H.). Also, 52 awareness exhibitions, 173 lectures and seminars were organized targeting 63,126 and 33,863 persons respectively. In addition, 5 training courses on basic skills to deal with smokers have been held for school counselors, family doctors and the community in Taif.
Taif anti-smoking program continues to provide preventive and therapeutic services to various community groups to combat the tobacco epidemic. In this regard, clinics will be expanded to include 10 clinics in Taif and other provinces in the region to seamlessly provide their services for those wishing to quit smoking.
It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Health, in line with its contribution to achieve the target of the National Transformation Program 2020, has launched the initiative of (reforming and restructuring the primary healthcare), as part of 40 initiatives designed to develop and improve the Kingdom's healthcare services and facilities to meet the needs of the community and the expectations of our righteous leader - may Allah protect him.
This new initiative aims to provide advanced outstanding primary healthcare services, to boost satisfaction with this sector's services, and to foster the outpatients' trust in health services. The initiative also seeks to restore confidence in primary healthcare centers, given the growing numbers of outpatients, to ensure accessibility to all beneficiaries to reduce the burden on different health professionals, to boost the preventive measures, and provide facility-based health services, in addition to reducing congestion on emergency departments and outpatient clinics.
MOH has recently launched the new design templates of primary healthcare centers at As-Sulaimaniyah, Al-Wadi, Al-Khaleej, Al-Murabba and Al-Mansourah. All are model centers. Also, all MOH's centers will be rehabilitated with similar templates. New centers will be set up. The news centers will provide all preventive, health and community services, while complying with CBAHI's standards. The services include consultation clinics, primary mental clinics, as well as other services such as immunization, maternity care, family medicine and early detection of chronic diseases. Also, the community will be engaged by creating community council to take part in planning health services. Each center will incorporate a training center for family medicine fellowship with a unified e-record database. The new centers feature a modern architectural style the required safety supplies. It’s noted that the work is currently underway to start the stage of mega centers according to MOH-approved medial facility identity.