JEDDAH, 12 July 2004 — The minister of health has fired Dr. Muhammad Al-Ghamdi as assistant to the director of health affairs in the Makkah region and appointed Dr. Ashraf Ameer in his place.
Dr. Noha Dashash will be his deputy.
Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manea made the decision on Saturday after conducting surprise visits to various primary health care centers in Jeddah following complaints of their inefficiency.
With this appointment, Dr. Dashash, a consultant family physician, becomes the first woman to hold high administrative office in the Jeddah Health Affairs Department. Last year, Elham Sindi was appointed the first general director of the newly established General Directorate of Nursing in the Ministry of Health, the first woman to hold a position of that level at the ministry.
Dr. Dashash, who began her work at the directorate yesterday, told Arab News she had a busy first day, meeting Dr. Al-Manea and the director of Health Affairs in the Makkah Region. She also inspected the North Obhur clinic where a woman recently died because no medical staff were in attendance.
She said there was an urgent need for improvements in family health care. “World Health Organization had the idea that nations must provide health for all by the year 2000, and it was found that the best way to achieve that is by providing primary health care centers everywhere,” she said.
Although Saudi Arabia established a number of such centers, they lack the necessary manpower and quality, according to Dr. Dashash. “There are more qualified graduates in family medicine now, but their numbers are still small, so we face the problem of needing more primary health care centers while we also have many which are below standard in equipment and staff,” she said.
She commended the minister of health for his focus on this issue. “We will concentrate on teamwork, on field work, paying attention to community efforts to provide high quality service, and on improving the staff’s communication skills with the patients,” she said.
The details of the plan are being put in place, but the important thing is compliance by all the medical personnel in the primary health care centers and the administration, Dr. Dashash said. Other challenges for the new team include new and suitably designed buildings for health centers.
Training is another important task ahead. “With good teamwork and effort, people will hopefully notice a difference in the coming period,” she said.
Among options being considered to make this happen Dr. Dahash said was an award for the best primary health care center based on patients’ recommendations.
