According to Northern Borders Health Affairs, Al-Uwayqilah Healthcare Center has obtained accreditation of the Saudi Central Board for Accreditation of Healthcare Institutions (CBAHI), after meeting the accreditation standards of quality and patient safety in primary healthcare. Thus, 11 healthcare centers across the region so far have obtained this accreditation.
It is worth mentioning that the Northern Borders Health Affairs features 12 specialized medical centers (a cardiac center, 5 diabetes centers, 3 kidney centers, and 3 dental centers), in addition to 11 hospitals with a 1,410-bed capacity, which are enhanced with a number of delicate medical specialties, such as: neurosurgery, heart surgery, bariatric surgery, endoscopy, oncology, and others. Also, the Affairs has 48 primary healthcare centers.
It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Health (MOH), in line with its contribution to achieve the targets 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 aspiration of our wise leaders - May Allah protect them.
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.