Fifty-bed hospital opens in Qunfuda

A fifty-bed hospital with outpatient services was opened in Qunfuda on Sunday.
Located on the Red Sea coast, Qunfuda is 297 km from Makkah and 334km from the commercial capital of Jeddah.
The general director of the Qunfuda province, Mustaffa Bajloun, said Al-Namira General Hospital will cater to the 30,000 people of the province. He added that this is the first phase of the hospital and other services will be extended during subsequent phases.
The director pointed out that initially, outpatient services are being offered at the hospital with allied services with the best global standards.
In 2012, the number of private and government hospitals reached a total of 408 with a combined capacity of 55,932 patient beds. Of these, 244 are government-run providing 34,370 patient beds. This is in addition to numerous clinics, primary health care centers and rehabilitation centers.
The Kingdom has made gigantic progress in improving the nation’s health, with infant mortality and maternity deaths greatly reduced and life expectancy doubled over the last 50 years.
The Ministry of Health covers more than 60 percent of the health care budget and the government sector dominates the country’s health care industry. In addition to providing medical services free of charge to all Saudi nationals, the Ministry of Health offers free health services to pilgrims and visitors during Haj and other seasons via a network of specialized hospitals and health centers.
The government is working to enhance medical education and related infrastructure. It is laying emphasis on the need to educate young Saudi health care professionals on a par with global standards.
Continuing expansion in the private health care sector is expected at a fast pace between 2012 and 2015 due to several factors: a growing population, increase in health care needs as a result of the prevalence of lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity and others, longer life expectancy, and improved health care.
Private hospitals in the Kingdom were the first to introduce a new system that ensures the safety of newborns but government hospitals were quick to follow suit. An e-system for the protection of the newborn has been introduced in 16 government hospitals so far as a first phase. He added that the second phase plans to include 149 hospitals with maternity wards.
The new security system is called Hugs and Kisses and based on radio frequency identification technology that identifies people by radio frequencies.