RIYADH/JEDDAH: The Executive Council of the Ministry of Health has approved its primary healthcare strategic plan at a meeting chaired by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah, Minister of Health, on Monday. Dr. Khalid Al-Marghalani, the ministry's spokesman, said the strategy includes a number of goals including providing world class preventive, therapeutic and rehabilitative services that will ensure quality of life for all patients. He said the classification and distribution of primary healthcare facilities in the Kingdom's regions, governorates, towns and villages was made on the basis of population density and cost effectiveness. The council members had also reviewed other relevant issues including cooperation with local and foreign universities to help improve the quality of service provision. The Ministry of Health will be setting up special teams to provide home-care for citizens who are unable to visit hospitals and clinics for treatment, said Al-Rabeah. He disclosed this on Sunday night during the Okaz Media Forum in Jeddah. He said the ministry is making a huge effort to ensure world class services for the country. He would not disclose the number of teams and patients to be treated, but stressed that the Ministry of Health provides 60 percent of all health services in the Kingdom. He said the ministry has completed an ambitious strategy for the country's health sector to be carried out in 10 years, including better governance, human resources development, information systems, administration and financing. To realize these goals, the minister said hospitals' infrastructure would be restructured and reformed and an effective system for the transfer of patients between health facilities would be developed.
