In line with the ongoing development projects implemented by the Northern Borders Health Affairs, the Maternity and Children Hospital - Arar has launched its infertility and reproductive clinic, to monitor, enlist and treat detected cases. This serves as a preparation for a specialized center for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and test-tube babies. This is the firs-of-its-kind across the northern regions.
It is worth noting the Northern Borders Affairs features 12 specialized medical centers (cardiac center, 5 diabetes centers, 3 kidney centers and 3 dental centers), in addition to 11 hospitals with 1,410-bed capacity. The Affairs also provides delicate specialized medical services, including: neurosurgery, cardiology, obesity surgery, laparoscopy, oncology, and much more. The Affairs also include 48 primary healthcare centers. The hospitals served in 2017 1,574,068 outpatients and performed 18,769 surgeries, while the healthcare centers provided its services to 904,580 outpatients.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has increased cardiac diagnosis of the newborn from 20% to 90% during 2017. In its 2017 achievements report, MoH stressed that this process has helped early detect congenital cardiac problems, treat them in initial phases, improve the health of cardiac children, reduce the burden and economic cost for both patients and the state. To do so, MoH has boosted the efficiency of the medical teams in Newborn Units through continuous training, policies and guidelines, as well as new indicators that help monitor performance.
Likewise, MoH has increased the number hearing diagnosis of the newborn from 17% to 89%. Thank Allah this has helped early detect hearing defects, treat them in their initial stages; thus, enabling the newborn to enjoy a normal life which is free from hearing impairments.