RIYADH: The Ministry of Health has referred 4,974 patients through the referral program (Ehalati), including 115 life-saving cases last week.

Suleiman bin Ahmad Al-Sharie, supervisor of the Ehalati program of the Ministry of Health, said the ministry has referred 4,974 patients through the program during a period of one week including 115 life-saving cases.

He explained that the service is aimed to improve work at the level of the ministry’s headquarters and health affairs directorates in all regions of the country.

Al-Sharie explained that under the program, 3,198 patients were transferred to specialized hospitals through the service without any paper work.

The Ehalati program aims to unify measures on patient referral among health facilities at all levels throughout the Kingdom’s regions, as well as automatically referring the patient between levels of the medical service in record time based only on the patient’s health situation and the objective medical opinion.

The advantages of the program include providing medical counseling among the physicians in various medical facilities, to study the patient case without the need for transferring him.

It also provides all logistical and coordination requirements to refer the patient from one medical facility to another.

In addition, it provides an archiving and statistical system, which contains information of the referred patients in the Kingdom’s hospitals.