• The Ministry of Health’s strategy aims to adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to healthcare

Riyadh—Amlak
His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabiah, revealed that the Ministry of Health, by the grace of God and with the support of the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques —may God preserve him—and through the efforts of its dedicated staff, has continued to provide preventive, curative, and emergency health services by operating and opening 79 new health projects across all regions of the Kingdom. These facilities (12,163) beds during the period from 1429 AH to the end of 1434 AH. Construction of Hospitals His Excellency the Minister of Health noted that the Ministry is currently preparing to equip a number of hospitals whose construction has been completed for their opening this year in several regions and provinces of the Kingdom, including Riyadh, Makkah, Hail, Madinah, the Eastern, Al-Jawf, Tabuk, Al-Baha, Najran, Jazan, Al-Qassim, and the Northern Border Region, adding a total of (7,745) beds, of which (4,749) are new and (3,035) are replacement beds. These projects include medical towers, specialized hospitals for women, obstetrics, and pediatrics, as well as mental health hospitals. Additionally, during the past year (1434 AH), 15 hospitals were put into operation, adding 3,450 beds across all regions of the Kingdom. This announcement came during His Excellency’s recent chairing of the second meeting of the Ministry of Health’s Executive Council for the year 1435 AH, during which he commended the Ministry’s staff for the work and tasks they had accomplished during the current fiscal year and for making optimal use of the Ministry’s budget allocations, which positively contributing to providing health care to our esteemed citizens, serving them, earning their satisfaction, putting the Ministry’s motto “The Patient Comes First” into practice, improving health services, and raising the performance standards of the Ministry’s facilities. Patient Care His Excellency emphasized that all Ministry staff work to serve patients and safeguard their health and safety, noting that the patient is always right and that their requests must be handled with the utmost care and attention, and their needs met with precision and quality.
His Excellency called on all Ministry employees to continue their efforts and diligent work to meet health needs and achieve further accomplishments, which, God willing, will be followed by other achievements across all Ministry facilities. Specialized Health Centers
In the same context, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Dr. Khalid Marghalani, explained that the Ministry has expanded the establishment of specialized medical centers; the Ministry currently has nine centers for cardiac surgery and cardiology, and three additional centers are under construction. The Ministry also launched four oncology centers between 1430 AH and 1434 AH, and three additional centers are currently under construction, bringing the total number of oncology centers to seven. As part of its plan, the Ministry aims to have a specialized center for cardiology and cardiac surgery and an oncology center in every region of the Kingdom, in addition to the specialized centers in the five medical cities. By the grace of God, and as a result of these indicators and the efforts made, the mortality rate for children under five years of age in the Kingdom has decreased from 44 cases per 1,000 children in 1990 to 12 cases per 1,000 children in 2012. The infant mortality rate also fell from 34 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 8 per 1,000 live births in 2012, The neonatal mortality rate also fell from 20 in 1990 to 5 per 1,000 live births, while the maternal mortality rate fell from 48 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 14 per 100,000 live births in 2012. (66) million patients. Last year, 1434 AH, the Ministry provided services to more than (66) million patients through its hospitals and health centers, with a total of (11.4) million patients, while the number of patients at primary health care centers reached (55) million. The Ministry also conducted more than (147,000,000) million laboratory and radiology tests, and the number of inpatients in the Ministry’s facilities reached approximately 1,700,000 patients, and the Ministry performed 450,000 surgical procedures, while the number of deliveries reached 262,000. Dr. Marghalani added that, building on these achievements and the services provided to citizens, the Ministry is undergoing comprehensive development across all its facilities and institutions, and has worked to improve its services and adopt the principle of collective institutional work. Dr. Khalid Marghalani explained that the Ministry of Health’s ten-year strategic plan (1431–1440 AH) —which began when His Excellency Dr. Al-Rabiah assumed the duties and responsibilities of the Ministry—aims to adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to healthcare with a focus on the scientific aspect. It also aims to establish a culture of institutional work, raise quality standards, measure and monitor performance, and attract qualifiedand developing human resources, while advancing e-health and information systems, in addition to optimizing the use of resources and applying healthcare economics and financing methods.