MINA, 24 January 2005 — The Health Hotline (HH), launched by the Ministry of Health last Tuesday, has been highly popular among the pilgrims. This was revealed to Arab News by Dr. Khalid Merghalani, supervisor general of media and health awareness directorate and the official spokesman of the ministry.
He said hundreds of pilgrims called the hotline numbers every day inquiring about health and medical problems encountered by them or their acquaintances.
“When we first advertised it in local newspapers, we were only receiving a few phone calls a day. The inquiries and replies come in both Arabic and English. But next year, depending on evaluation, we might add more languages,” said Dr. Merghalani.
The services offered to callers by HH through these two numbers — 02-5572152 and 02-5510094 — include giving health or medical advice by specialist doctors, giving direction to the nearest health care facility and provision of medical emergency services.
Ninety medical professionals were recruited abroad by the ministry for this year’s Haj operation. Called visiting medical staff they are high caliber Muslim professionals, 14 of whom are from the United States, six from Britain and 70 from Malaysia. “According to the religious traditions, we can’t hire non-Muslim staff to work at the holy places,” said Dr. Khalid Al-Husein, director general of hospitals at the ministry and head of visiting Haj medical staff committee.
Dr. Al-Husein dismissed the notion of hiring them just for the purpose of showing off. “We really need them. It is part of our country’s commitment to provide wide spectrum and high quality health care services to the guests of Allah,” he said. “Before heading abroad, we searched in the Kingdom for such staff. We hired 18 of them from King Faisal Specialist Hospital, National Guard Hospitals and Security Forces Hospital. They were all what we found here. ... Then, we went abroad looking for more personnel. We targeted to get 147,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, Dr. Othman Maimani, director of health affairs in Makkah and the deputy head of the executive Haj committee, said as many as 369 pilgrims being treated at various hospitals were taken to the plains of Arafat on Wednesday.
Dr. Maimani pointed out that they were transferred from their hospitals by 29 buses and ambulances of the ministry. “Of them, 300 were from Makkah hospitals, 54 from Mina hospitals, and 15 from Madinah hospitals,” he added.
