Health services boosted with 400 ambulances

Health facilities across the Kingdom are expected to receive 400 state-of-the-art ambulances within 11 months, the Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday.
A senior official from the ministry said that the purchase order for these ambulances has been approved by the Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah at a cost of SR130 million.
Mohammed Al-Sibeiri, head of the procurement department at the ministry, said the purchase order has been placed to meet the growing needs of patients across the Kingdom.
The official said that the ministry has updated its ambulance fleet with 1,700 vehicles during the past five years. He said that these ambulances are available 24 hours a day on toll free number 937 from any part of the Kingdom.
The ministry has been providing 300 vehicles each year for the past three years.
Al-Sibeiri said the ambulances would help the ministry serve people on a wider scale because of strict implementation of the patients-first program, which was introduced by Al-Rabeeah last year.
He added that the ambulance would be distributed among the 20 health regions spread throughout the country for emergency services.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GE Healthcare yesterday to train medical professionals within the ministry. The accord would address current health care challenges in the area of training and clinical expertise and focus on transforming health care delivery via collaborations, partnerships and regional support from public and private sectors.
Under the agreement, some 600 technologists from the Ministry of Health would be trained in the fields of Magnetic Resonance (MR), Computed Tomography (CT) and X-ray.
The ministry’s professionals will also undergo clinical training and engage in leadership and decision-making programs. Attendees will exchange top-notch practices in modern medicine and hold learning sessions on change acceleration, in addition to shedding light on six sigma methodologies and processes.
Al-Rabeeah said that the government is keen on developing its human resources to provide better health care services to its people as per the ninth development plan.
“We have adopted an integrated and comprehensive system for healthcare and will increase the development potential of research and education in Kingdom,” the minister said, adding that the level of health services will be taken to new heights.
He said the new training institute, which will be set up at the King Fahd Medical City, would be a major breakthrough in building new skills among the ministry’s medical staff.