JEDDAH, 3 June 2007 — Saudi Arabia will host the Sixth Gulf Conference on Primary Health Care and the seventh Scientific Meeting for Family and Community Medicine entitled “Future of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care in the GCC” for three days starting tomorrow at King Faisal Conference Hall in Riyadh.
GCC health ministers decided that the year 2009 would be the year of supporting primary health care for families and communities in the region.
“The success of the health systems is measured by the primary health care,” said Dr. Tawfik Khoja, director general of the Executive Board of Council of Health Ministers of GCC States.
Khoja published a book called “Views on the Primary Health Care in the GCC” that he says should be a guide for restructuring and organizing primary health care and family medicine.
The GCC health ministries assigned 20 percent of the training budgets for in-the-field training in primary health care with the aim of having doctors complete the training by 2010. This is the first time Saudi Arabia will host the conference that ends on Wednesday.
