RIYADH, 11 March 2004 — A senior health official has said there is an urgent need for more medical colleges in the Kingdom. The reason is that Saudi doctors make up only 20 percent of the work force in the health care sector. The number is expected to reach 40 percent by 2025.
Dr. Muhammad Hassan Mufti, director general of the Security Forces Hospital, was speaking on medical education in the Kingdom and the scope for cooperation with Britain. The meeting, organized by the British Council, brought together a large number of academics, doctors and researchers from Saudi hospitals and medical institutions.
Dr. Mufti said the 3.2 percent annual growth rate of the Saudi population had strained the Kingdom’s financial and manpower markets and dictated the need for a creative response to the situation.
Pointing out that his hospital was making optimum use of its resources, Dr. Mufti said: “Against the 3,000 deliveries that we were performing in the past, we were able to carry out 7,000 deliveries last year. The number of medical files maintained has also increased from 200,000 to 700,000 thanks to the application of modern technology. We did this by relying on information technology, new methods of clinical treatment and optimum utilization of resources.”
Dr. Mufti said that in addition to opening more colleges to meet the needs, especially for doctors, nurses and other paramedics, more primary health care centers were also required. The ministry plans to set up 2,000 new health centers in the Kingdom and another objective of the Seventh Five-Year Plan is to boost the number of nurses by 32 percent.
Dr. Mufti said various factors were responsible for the high cost of treatment. Among them are the use of high technology equipment in hospitals, the change of disease patterns, the longevity of patients and greater awareness among patients.
He said the government was currently bearing 80 percent of the cost of health care services as a result of which the focus was shifting toward medical insurance. However, other options were also available.
He said there was a need for ending duplication in the field of health care since health care providers included the ministries of defense and interior, the National Guard and universities. “This sector has to be organized in the interest of efficient health care services.”
He suggested that government hospitals should have a medical outreach program so that they could charge for the services provided by them. He said one way of reducing the high cost of treatment was by constructing more hospitals and setting up regulatory standards.
Dr. Mufti said that as a result of budgetary constraints there was an emerging trend toward cost-cutting measures on the part of hospitals. “We have to check to see that before we buy an expensive piece of equipment there is no similar equipment in other hospitals in the same city. This will eliminate duplication of costly equipment and result in substantial savings. Moreover, other cities lacking the equipment will benefit from the optimum utilization of resources. This is also the direction of the government’s policy,” he observed.
