Having conducted stimulants and banned substances testing to 12854 drivers, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has disqualified 28 bus ones. This comes as part of the “Yaqiz” (vigilant) Program implemented by the MOH in Makkah and Madinah.
The Assistant Deputy Minister for the Supportive Medical Services; and the Supervisor of the Poisons, Laboratories, Nursing and Nutrition Monitoring Centers in the Hajj, Dr. Munirah bint Himdan Al-Osaimi, pointed out that the drivers with positive testing samples have been disqualified; all of them are non-Saudis.
As regards the work of the Bus Drivers’ Examination Committee, Dr. Al-Osaimi emphasized that the Committee has continued its work at two phases: the first started on 1/11 to 7/12; the second on 12/12 to 15/1/1435h. She went on to point out that all the bodies taking part in the Committee are supervised and implemented by the MOH, Health Affairs General Directorate in Makkah; represented by the Poisons and Forensic Medicine Chemistry, Health Affairs General Directorate in Madinah; represented by the Poisons and Forensic Medicine Chemistry, in collaboration with the officials of the General Directorate of Narcotics Control, Ministry of Hajj and General Cars Syndicate; and the follow-up of the Trusteeship of the High Commission for Pilgrims’ Transport Control.
Similarly, Dr. Al-Osaimi made clear that a permanent headquarters for the Centers at the flocking and guiding sites has been prepared through mobile teams examining via the companies’ headquarters. These teams have been provided with a number of specialists and technicians, and all the technological modern equipment for detecting the drugs and psychotropic substances, conducted by the Health Affairs General Directorate in Makkah. She went on adding that the required analyses are done in the headquarters by the modern technologies and a swift mechanism; in order to guarantee the speediness of the bus movement.
Within the same vein, Dr. Al-Osaimi unveiled that the websites have been linked to the ̔Awtar’ Program. It is an application for e-linking all the websites for entering all the drivers’ information. This in turn allows the Committee to follow up all the cases around the clock, as well as speeding the sending of the results to the bodies concerned electronically. And, in the event that the sample should prove positive in terms of any banned substances, stimulants and hypnotics, the driver is disqualified from the trip and replaced by any of the back-up drivers in the sites, for guaranteeing the safety of the trip.
Likewise, Dr. Al-Osaimi affirmed that these examinations are preliminary ones until the results are confirmed in the Health Affairs General Directorate in Makkah by the advanced analysis devices.
Dr. Al-Osaimi noted that the water samples examination is underway by the Drinking Water Safety Committee for detecting any poisons. So far, 125 samples have been examined, and all of them have proven sound and free of poisons, thanks to Allah.