The British Minister of State for Health, Mr. Simon Burns, has commended the vigorous development of health services underway in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, especially the policy of medical cities adopted throughout the Kingdom's regions. He described this development as a “paradigm shift” in the provision of best-quality healthcare services.
This announcement, by Mr. Burns, was made during his meeting with the Saudi Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, at the MOH Headquarters, based in Riyadh.
Mr. Burns was quoted as saying, “The health systems adopted by the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are so much alike. Advantages are similar, and so are the challenges. That's why cooperation and coordination between the two of them is crucial; more crucial than ever.”
For his part, Dr. Al-Rabeeah pointed out that they discussed the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two parties two years ago, as well as the promotion and expansion of cooperation in many domains, most notably training Saudi cadres in British universities, in addition to many other areas and manifestations of coordination between first-class hospitals in the two countries. That's to be added to coordination in the fields of information technology, visiting doctor programs, in addition to public health training for MA and PhD holders.
Dr. Al-Rabeeah revealed that the British Minister of State for Health expressed his acceptance to train about 200 health practitioners (subject to increase), and form a work team (committee) to put into effect the previously approved domains of cooperation.
As the meeting drew to a close, Dr. Burns lauded the substantial achievement accomplished by the National Center for Vector Borne Diseases, in Jazan, which could be taken as a role model for cooperation between the UK and the KSA.