His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, issued a decision forming the Hajj Preparatory Committees of the Ministry of Health (MOH) for both Makkah and Madinah. The decision included designating his Excellency the Deputy Minister for Planning and Development, Dr. Mohammed bin Hamzah Khoshaim as a head of the preparatory committees, and the membership of a number of deputies and directors-general.
These decisions come within the framework of the MOH's early preparations for this year's Hajj season 1435H. This also takes place according to what the interest of work requires, i.e., the necessity of distributing the tasks, stages, sector heads, and committees through the preparation, implementation, follow-up, and field supervision of the health Hajj services of 1435H between the MOH's central departments and their subsidiaries in Makkah and Madinah.
The decisions stipulated, inter alia, dividing work in terms of preparing, planning, and supervising the health Hajj services into three principal phases headed by the Minister of Health; and the preparatory Hajj committees to be chaired by Dr. Mohammed bin Hamzah Khoshaim, the Vice Minister for Planning and Development; and the membership of the working committees heads at the headquarters of the Ministry of Health (MOH).
They are the Deputy Minister for Public Health: Head of the Preventive Medicine and Infection Combat Committee; Deputy Minister for Planning and Health Economies: Information Technology and Statistics Hajj Committee; Deputy Minister for Supply and Engineering Affairs: Head of the Medical Supply and Equipment Hajj Committee; Advisor to the Minister of Health, the Supervisor-General of the Monitoring, Internal Auditing, and Follow-up Department: Head of the Workforce, Visiting Workforce, Financial Affairs and Stockpile Monitoring Committee.
The committees include in their membership, besides, the Advisor to the Minister of Health, the Supervisor-General of the Relations, Media, and Health Awareness and Head of the Media and Health Awareness Hajj Committee; Assistant Deputy Minister for Engineering Affairs: Head of the Projects and Engineering Affairs; Assistant Deputy Minister for the Medical Supportive Services: Head of the Medical Supportive Services Committee (laboratories, nutrition, nursing); Director-General of the Hospitals Department: Head of the Technical Supervision Hajj Committee (hospitals, health centers); Director-General of the Health Emergency General Department: Head of the Emergency and Field Medicine Hajj Committee, as well as the health affairs directors of both Makkah and Madinah.
Further, the decisions involved tasking the committees and health affairs directorates in Makkah and Madinah with submitting all the medical and non-medical plans, programs, projects, needs, and equipment required for the Hajj and Umrah season to the Hajj and Umrah Health Services General Department; in order to study them and complete the necessary procedures, in coordination with the relevant committees and bodies. All the more, each of the health affairs directorates of Makkah and Madinah are to set up an executive Hajj committee, headed by the director-general of the health affairs directorate of each region. Its membership is to join the heads of the relevant local committees and departments in parallel with those emanating from the Preparatory Hajj Committee; providing that each of the executive committees is linked to the head of each equivalent committee of the MOH's committees in relation to the Hajj work.
Within the same vein, the decisions included commissioning the Hajj and Umrah Health Services General Department with carrying out the tasks and work assigned to it in terms of providing all the public services during the Hajj season of the MOH's officials and the seconded, following up implementing all the work related to the WORKFORCE and Visiting Workforce Program, projects, and needs of the preparatory Hajj committees and both Makkah and Madinah, preparing and updating the directory of the work procedures, policies, and tasks for the preparatory Hajj committees taking part in the Hajj season, and setting the annual plan of the Hajj season program.
They also involved the Hajj and Umrah Health Services General Department, heads of the relevant committees and departments, and representatives of the health affairs directorates task with following up all what is related to the work of the health Hajj services, each within its purview according to several phases. They include the preparation phase, to start as of the date of the decision issuance on 25/11/20013. It is to review work guidelines and procedures and the health Hajj plans and pinpoint the needs and requirements of this year's Hajj season 1435H. Then comes the implementation and follow-up phase; it is to kick off on 15/4/2014, during which the health Hajj plans are to be approved, health Hajj plans are to be implemented, and their different phases are to be followed up. And there is the field supervision phase; it is to be launched on 27/8/2014. It is to involve assigning the officials to play a field role in the health Hajj plan, whose work requires being in the Holy Sites, making inspection tours to the Holy Sites, and reviewing the health Hajj plans and the modifications they undergo; and working on implementing them.