I WOULD thank anyone who told me when I made a mistake, especially if I was a government official in charge of a department or ministry whose decisions affect the general public. We are optimistic about the modern plans that Health Minister Khaled Al-Falih is working on. As the former CEO of Aramco, he has considerable experience in management. However, this fact does not mean that Al-Falih should ignore the opinions and comments of people who are specialists in medicine and who now work for the Ministry of Health. I am saying this because senior personnel of the ministry have given everything they have in terms of ideas and plans and do not have anything to add. This also applies to everyone who joined the ministry from Aramco when Al-Falih took over. Some of them do not have enough experience in the public sector because they have worked for too long in the private sector. Let me explain my point by citing an example. Recently, the Health Minister issued a decision that requires private pharmacies to hire Saudi pharmacists to be in charge of psychiatric or controlled medications. I believe it is difficult to put this decision into action because we suffer from a severe shortage of Saudi pharmacists. Moreover, statistics indicate that it would take at least a century before we would have enough Saudi pharmacists. The ministry itself suffers from this shortage. Therefore, I wonder how this decision will be implemented and who is going to comply with it. Looking at the reality of the situation, no one is going to implement this decision. But because of it, some pharmacies have stopped supplying psychiatric medication because they cannot comply with the decision and find Saudi pharmacists. The shortage of such medications can have a negative impact on psychiatric patients. I call on the minister to reconsider his decision.
