MOH boosts homecare budget to SR 95 million

The Ministry of Health has raised the financial allocation for its homecare program this year to SR 95 million, compared to SR 70 million last year.
A total of 22,000 patients have benefited from it, said director general of the Medical Homecare Department at the ministry, Dr. Nasser Al-Huzaim, who was speaking at the first homecare conference held in Jeddah recently.
Al-Huzaim said the increase in the budget is for more staff, vehicles and medical equipment to support the program in the Kingdom’s regions. The ministry provided the program with 80 vehicles last year. This year's budget provides for 189 vehicles.
He said 163 government hospitals in the country are implementing the program through 262 medical teams comprising 1,295 physicians, nurses and medical support assistants.
Al-Huzaim said that regional health departments are applying a unified scientific assessment program to determine cases eligible for the homecare program services, which includes a medical assessment of the patient’s condition. Before the patient is discharged from the hospital after being approved as a homecare beneficiary, his or her consultant physician would have set in place a treatment plan. A homecare patient must also have a companion or helper who receives proper training, he said.
The program targets, among others, patients of chronic illnesses (heart, diabetes and blood pressure conditions), patients who suffered strokes, head injuries and nervous system disorders. The program also caters for patients with respiratory system illnesses (respiratory failure, breathing disorders), those needing tube feeding, those with chronic psychiatric diseases and palliative care patients.