The horizon of home care service in the Kingdom should be expanded, said Princess Adela bint Abdullah, president of the National Charity Foundation for Home Care in the Western Region.

“The charity foundation strives to promote home care services in the Kingdom and familiarize the public with the significant role it plays in helping poor patients,” she said.

“Home care is an ideal choice for advanced societies. Our humanitarian goals mandate our efforts to support patients,” the princess said while addressing a forum on home care in Jeddah on Tuesday.

Mansour Al-Hawassi, deputy minister for health affairs, launched the forum on behalf of Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah.

The princess said one of the goals of the forum was to explore the developments in the field of home care in order to provide an insight into the latest methods of training and rehabilitation techniques for workers in the sector.

It also sought to stress the importance of greater social support to ensure better patient care through the rehabilitation of patients and their families.

Al-Rabeeah said that home care services figured in the comprehensive health policy of the ministry.

The minister lauded the achievements of the charity foundation, which served more than 33,000 patients at their homes across the Kingdom. Around 308 qualified medical teams working at 178 hospitals undertook the service, he said.

“The medical teams made more than half a million patient visits until the end of October, besides supplying medical equipment, medicine and other patient requirements,” the minister said.

Maha bint Abdul Aziz, deputy chairperson of the forum’s Scientific Committee, said that society must develop pioneers capable of enhancing such services in the health care sector.

“Through this forum, we aim to communicate with experts and decision-makers in the legislative sector and the private sector, in addition to liaise with health care investors,’’ she said.