Acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih

Acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih announced here recently that the ministry will not renew or grant licenses to facilities that fail to meet the government’s quality standards.

The ministry plans to introduce regulations that make it mandatory for every health facility to procure a Certificate of Conformity before it is allowed to operate.

The government’s Conformity Assessment Program, which covers all goods and services, including imports, has several key objectives, including the protection of public health, consumer safety, national security, upholding religious and public morals, preserving the environment, and the prevention of fraudulent practices.

Fakeih was speaking on the sidelines of the regional consultative meeting of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region organized by the Saudi Center for the Endorsement of Healthcare Facilities (Sabahi), in cooperation with the World Health Organization regional office in Jeddah.

Commenting on the ongoing assessment of the ministry’s leadership, Fakeih said it was a review and evaluation process to improve the performance of officials.

He said this process has resulted in the ministry replacing people. However, there were some “remarkable” health care workers “who should be encouraged,” he said.

“Improving quality is an endless process. All the hospitals and health care providers in the Kingdom, whether private or public, should continuously work to improve the quality of their work and services provided.”

He said the aim of the meeting with international experts from WHO and other parties was to improve and standardize health care services.

On the recent discovery of 92 unrecorded fatalities from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), he said this was achieved by officials scouring medical records at government facilities.

The minister said that there has been a drop in MERS cases recently because of the cooperation between the Health Ministry and many other parties. He said the ministry is still taking several precautionary measures to tackle the MERS outbreak.