Minister of Health Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah has signed a community partnership agreement between the ministry and Nahdi Medical Company, represented during the signing by its chief executive officer, Yasser Joharji. The agreement was signed on Thursday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Riyadh Digital City.

The community partnership agreement aims to build community sustainability. The Ministry of Health aspires to promote the private sector’s contribution to health development and enable it to carry out business with healthy returns that meet the actual needs of the community, while Nahdi Medical Company aims to serve its community and the nation through sustainable and charitable health projects.

Through this agreement, the Ministry of Health will facilitate Nahdi’s work and oversee all partnership projects between the two parties, whereas Nahdi Medical Company will offer health services inside 50 educational clinics in its pharmacies for 100,000 patients, including medical, diabetes and vaccination education, in addition to a weight management program targeting 100,000 patients.

Joharji said: “We signed this agreement with the Ministry of Health in the framework of Nahdi’s strategy within the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 in order to expand the company’s community health services. We aspire to become a central community pharmacy providing medication alongside our role as provider of knowledge, awareness and services.”

Joharji explained that the Nahdi Medical Company will offer diabetes and medication education services to patients through 50 pharmacies across the Kingdom, with the goal to complete 300,000 diabetes education sessions by 2020. Furthermore, an electronic application for educating diabetes patients will be designed and built with the objective to target 100,000 patients by 2020.

In addition, Nahdi will prepare two mobile health convoys to serve pilgrims and visitors, both of which will offer diabetes, blood pressure measurement and medication education to 30,000 pilgrims by 2020. Non-prescription medication such as fever reducers and cold medicine will also be provided to all pilgrims benefiting from the service.

The agreement includes awareness campaigns for obesity, walking and weight management (Wazen Program), which include the launch and implementation of a weight loss competition across the Kingdom through the “10 Billion Steps Campaign,” encouraging 200,000 people to adopt the habit of walking 10,000 steps a day.