The MOH Deputy Minister of Health for Supply and Engineering Affairs, Dr. Salah bin Fahd Al-Mazrou, said that the Ministry of Health (MOH) is keen to establish supportive departments and programs, including the Fire Extinguishing Program and the Rapid Intervention Vehicles and Equipments affiliating to the Safety and Security General Department, pointing out that this Program was supported initially by two cars and a number of individuals, but the Ministry aims to develop it and support it with more cadres and experienced personnel in order to achieve the primary objective of the security and safety principle.
Within the same vein, Dr. Al-Mazrou highlighted that the vehicles will be distributed to all MOH’s hospitals after training and rehabilitating the existing members of the security and safety departments in hospitals; that is to be added to organizing specialized workshops. This statement was delivered during the launching of the Rapid Intervention Vehicles and Equipment Program on Monday.
For his part, the Director General of the Safety and Security General Department, Eng. Osama Al-Zaid, underscored that working at any health facility is governed by several local and global standards and systems such as the criteria of the Central Board of Accreditation for Healthcare Institutions and the systems of the Civil Defense Council. Therefore, the Safety and Security General Department seeks to develop a range of unified policies and procedures for health facilities.
Furthermore, Eng. Osama Al-Zaid added that the MOH has trained and rehabilitated the employees of the Safety and Security General Department and supported them with the necessary equipments and devices to help them accomplish their tasks; noting that the General Department was supported by two vehicles and equipments for rapid intervention; because it is universally known that the most important time in the fire is the first three minutes; so you can control it.
Eng. Al-Zaid further mentioned that there is an integrated coordination with the Civil Defense Council through paying visits to all hospitals, and preparing reports on all health facilities, highlighting that the Safety and Security General Department will serve as the nexus between the Civil Defense Council and Health Affairs Directorates in all regions.
Moreover, Eng. Al-Zaid pointed out that the Department has set a strategy to inspect all MOH's facilities and evaluate their validity periodically. The first stage of such a strategy is to do with hospitals; this is through evaluating safety means and systems such as the periodical smoke detection and extinguishing system, the safety of extinguishing exits, and proper storage, which is considered an important part of such an inspection.
It is noteworthy that safety vehicles were equipped to serve in fire extinguishing and rapid intervention; as they were provided with a number of fire extinguishers of different sizes and varieties in order to face all kinds of fires. They were also provided with the equipments of forcible entry, such as the iron scissors, the electrical wire shears, an iron hammer, a rubber hammer, an equipment to take off the doors, a fire blanket, a first aid kit, a torch, a drum for breathing, and other safety equipments.