RIYADH: The Saudi Red Crescent Authority downplayed criticism from members of the Shoura Council who described the organization’s development plan as “haphazard” at a meeting last week.
Reviewing a 2007 report on the Saudi Red Crescent’s future development plans, Shoura members said that the plan was “haphazard” and “randomly” put together. In response, officials from the health organization said the assessment was inaccurate and that it was based on an old report.
“The report that the Shoura members discussed is in no way related to the new development plan at hand,” said Mouafaq Al-Beuk, general director of Emergency Medical Services at the Saudi Red Crescent Authority.
“The plans we are working on are not unsystematic or randomly composed as described by the Shoura members,” he added.
Al-Beuk said that the “authority has not opened an ambulance center since 2007 due to a lack of professional manpower” as stated in the old plans and that it has since then closed down a number of centers that were not playing a beneficial role.
Al-Beuk added that the Saudi Red Crescent Authority is seriously considering opening a professional academy to produce more qualified personnel to work at its various centers around the Kingdom. He revealed that the authority is keen to open 600 to 700 ambulance centers. There are presently 250 centers in the Kingdom. “However, the lack of professional manpower has been an obstacle in achieving that goal,” he said.
Officials attributed this to a decision taken more than 26 years ago to close down the then Red Crescent Educational Institute.
“The solution lies in establishing the academy,” he said, “which will lead us to achieve the goal of achieving an emergency response time that is acceptable according to international medical standards.”
The Saudi Red Crescent Authority is also to launch its emergency air service within four weeks. “We are awaiting for the General Authority of Civil Aviation to grant us the required license to launch the operation. We expect the license to be issued very soon,” he said.
The Red Crescent recently received two new helicopters out of a total of six that are to be received this year. The plan is to acquire 28 helicopters within the next five years for rescue operations that are between a range of 100 to 120 km.
