RIYADH, 7 June 2007 — Gulf Cooperation Council participants who concluded three days of discussions on family medicine and primary health care here yesterday have recommended that 20 percent of all doctors in the six GCC member countries should be trained as specialists in family medicine in the next 10 years.
Participants also recommended that the GCC endorse Saudi Arabia’s program to promote better access to family doctors by families by introducing more family medicine specialists in remote and smaller clinics. The six members of the GCC are Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
The Saudi Health Ministry announced last Saturday that the Kingdom would soon revamp its primary health system and establish new centers across the Kingdom, providing specific departments in family medicine. It also said its nationwide family medicine program aimed at rehabilitating physicians to work as family medicine doctors to ensure that every Saudi family has access to a specialist in family medicine. Participants urged that trainees be enrolled in foreign scholarship programs that would be evaluated on a regular basis.
The ministry said the program would reduce the large numbers of visitors to public hospitals as family medicine doctors would have the responsibility of checking on patients first before determining a transfer for further medical attention.
“The family medical doctor would be responsible for following up the vaccinations of children in several families from an early age,” said Dr. Halah Al-Muhazzai, head of international relations in the Health Ministry in Bahrain. “The doctor will continue to follow up on their health conditions after they grow up, and after the girls get married and get pregnant and so forth.”
Al-Muhazzai also stressed the importance of proper rehabilitation of family medicine doctors, noting that they were the ones who would diagnose patients before determining that they needed further medical attention at hospitals.
Over 400 physicians, nurses, family medicine doctors, psychologists, and sociologists from GCC countries participated in 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.”
Saudi Minister of Health Dr. Hamad Al-Manie inaugurated the conference on Monday. It was held under the auspices of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
Other recommendations from the conference urged that health sectors in GCC countries be revamped on the basis of a public health system, which works on the necessities and understandings of family medicine.
Participants also urged that physicians who wish to volunteer in primary health programs be supported. In addition, they recommended that family medicine and primary health programs in the private sector be better organized.
Participants urged GCC countries to take advantage of Islamic endowments and other international experiences to better finance family medicine and primary health programs.
The recommendations have been sent to the executive office of the Council of Health Ministers in the GCC.
Princess Sara bint Musaed ibn Abdul Aziz, one of the participants, lauded the Saudi initiative, saying that the strategy would put the Kingdom on the top of the list of countries that are pioneers in family health care.
