Shoura Council members labelled the Ministry of Health’s performance as ”below expectation” and feared that the ministry did not keep pace with the goals of Vision 2030 after reading the annual report of the ministry for the fiscal year 2017.

The Council members were particularly critical of the shortage of beds available for cancer patients, failure to keep deadlines and the disparity in the salaries of Saudi and non-Saudi doctors, besides the unending complaints of citizens about the lack of medicines and vaccinations.

Shoura Member Muhammad Al-Naji called on the ministry to find urgent solutions to the reduction in timings of outpatient clinics. He said while the ministry is striving to protect the interests of patients and has set up a unified number for complaints from patients, more than 50 percent of the complaints are about the poor service offered by health workers in hospitals. He stressed the need for the ministry to conduct workshops to raise the awareness about the rights of patients and the duties of health practitioners.

He also wanted a solution to the problem of the inordinate delay in the commissioning of  a new hospital after its building works are completed. He also expressed concern at the high level of medical errors occurring in Saudi hospitals. In the period between 2013-2016, about 3,600 medical errors were reported, of which 466 Saudi doctors and 2,566 expatriate doctors were convicted. It indicated the errors in recruiting foreign doctors including checking their qualifications, while the Kingdom is ranked 64 in the field of health care internationally.

SOURCE : ALBILAD