His Excellency the Minister of Health, Eng. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, and His Excellency the Minister of Education, Dr. Azzam bin Muhammad Al-Dakhil, held the 2nd integral meeting between the two ministries yesterday. The meeting was held to enhance cooperation set forth in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed between the two ministries last Sha‘ban at King Khalid University (KKU) in Asir.
The agenda of the meeting included some topics of mutual concern, including discussing ways to increase participation in providing health care at hospitals and the Ministry of Education (MOE) centers and planning the manpower there. In addition, the meeting probed difficulties and challenges facing female students at health colleges in the field of clinical training at hospitals.
Furthermore, the meeting touched upon the procedures that have been taken to provide scholarships in the field of health specialties, by virtue of the agreement signed between the two ministries for offering 20,000 scholarships to candidates, as part of the 3rd phase of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Program titled,(#Your_Job_and_Your-Scholarship).Besides, the meeting shed light on the Central Electronic Monitoring System, which will enable the two ministries to follow up candidates and provide them with the services they need.
Within the same vein, the meeting identified a specified communication channel between the two ministries, with a view to holding regular meetings between them to discuss cooperation aspects and ways to improve them, in addition to boosting coordination of plans for establishment and operation of university health facilities, achieving integration for providing health services for beneficiaries, conducting applied health researches that will help improve health services, and promoting integration of awareness and health promotion programs.
Furthermore, the meeting discussed the possibility of benefiting from the medical colleges by giving them a chance to work within the framework of the MOH’s programs to cover remote and isolated areas, such as the Visiting Physician Program. The two ministers discussed also the possibility of establishing a joint scientific council to develop research plans for scientific researches in the field of improving the health system, therapeutic aspects and public health, to be offered to those willing, and identify financing mechanisms for implementation of such plans.
It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned MOU focuses on a set of vital strategic axes, aiming at activating mutual objectives to serve the Saudi society in the health sector, in concordance with the highest international standards. The two ministries have earlier embarked on the implementation of a number of the MOU items, including signing of two MOUs on cooperation between MOH and King Abdulaziz University (KAU) and Jeddah University (JU). The first MOU stipulates that teaching staff of the Faculty of Medicine at KAU are to run East Jeddah General Hospital (as part-timers). The second MOU, meanwhile, stipulates that teaching staff of the Faculty of Medicine at JU are to run King Abdullah Medical City (KAMC) in northern Jeddah (as part-timers).