Three factors are impeding the Ministry of Health in carrying out the family doctor project for every family across the the Kingdom, Dr. Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Mane', said here on Saturday. The main challenge, he said, is that there are an insufficient number of family doctors in the Kingdom as currently there are only 50 family doctors as against the requirement of 2,000. Secondly, 90 percent of health centers are functioning in rented buildings and finally, all citizens are not convinced of the benefits accruing from the family doctor project, he said. Al-Mane' spoke to the media after inaugurating the ministry's primary health care website here. Meanwhile, Dr. Al-Mane' has made it mandatory for the laboratory and blood bank affairs agency to follow the latest technology in analyzing blood samples taken from blood donors to eliminate the possibility of transmission of any infectious or epidemic diseases. He said the ministry has introduced the latest technology for scanning donors' blood through DNA technology. In another development, the Health and Environment Committee at the Shoura Council has stressed the importance of reactivating the control and monitoring system applied to public and private hospitals. The Shoura members also stressed the importance of assigning neutral bodies to evaluate the quality of health services offered in both public and private medical institutions. The committee also urged the ministry to employ highly qualified personnel in the medical field to work in public hospitals with an aim to upgrade the standard of medical services rendered to citizens. The committee said service seekers living in remote areas also suffer from a shortage of medical services and inadequate medical facilities. It also called upon the ministry to check all necessary arrangements and procedures for the development of health services especially the application of the health insurance system to cover all the citizens in the country.
