After examining a new booklet highlighting the ministry’s achievements last year, King Abdullah thanked Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah and his team of officials.

Al-Rabeeah praised King Abdullah’s support, which he says enabled the ministry to offer the best possible services to citizens, residents and pilgrims to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.

“Our officials feel encouraged by the dynamic leadership of the king who is keen to provide excellent health care to all people living in the Kingdom,” he said.

The booklet outlines how the ministry has restructured its strategies to offer medical services to all. “Patients need not travel from region to region in search of better medical health care except in rare circumstances. Everything is found in the region itself,” Al-Rabeeah said, adding that special cases could be ferried from one region to another at the government’s expense.

“We have set up emergency rooms in all health institutions including the regional health directorates on a 24-hour basis from where patients can be transferred to a region where urgent surgery can be done, especially in the case of organ transplantation.”

Health care is an essential service in the Kingdom and makes the sector more challenging when compared to other countries, he said.

The vision of the ministry is to deliver comprehensive health care at individual, family and community levels, maintaining services both in quantity and quality and in particular to help the elderly and those with special needs.

Article 31 of the Saudi Basic Law of Governance is concerned with public health and provision of health care.

The ministry has also succeeded in checking the threat of some epidemics in the Kingdom, including dengue fever, bird flu and most recently swine flu.

Timely action taken by the ministry has helped people avoid the H1N1 virus and those who were affected received early treatment to ensure minimal casualties.

Al-Rabeeah said health services have witnessed great developments at the preventive, therapeutic, and rehabilitation levels.

The average annual number of patients consulting ministry facilities has exceeded 60 million, a figure that may increase to 75 million in the near future.