Okaz/Saudi Gazette HAIL — Minister of Health Tawfiq Al-Rabiah needs to pay special attention to four main challenges in order to provide better and consistent health services to citizens, according to ministry's agency for planning and health economies. They are the issue of chronic diseases, the high cost of medication, inaccessibility to health services and the shortage of manpower in the ministry and its health facilities. Al-Rabiah is currently considering about 50 documents prepared by the agency on the major challenges. The agency said that four medical specializations are suffering from acute shortage of medical cadres. They are the intensive care unit and the departments of neurology, medical rehabilitation and psychiatry. It said the ICUs in about 30 government hospitals are almost full, patients in need of neurosurgery have to wait for at least five months for their turn and medical rehabilitation has a waiting time of 10 months. There is only one bed for each 100,000 patients who are in need of medical rehabilitation, it added. There are 11 beds for each 100,000 psychiatric patients compared to the international rate of 96 beds. According to the agency, there were 284 government hospitals in the Kingdom in 2015. Jeddah, with about 80 percent, is tops all towns and cities in accessibility to health services followed by Qassim, Madinah, Makkah, Taif, Qunfudah, Jazan and Al-Ahsa each with about 70 percent accessibility to health services. Cities like Riyadh, Hail, Dammam, Bisha, Asir, Baha and Tabuk rank third with about 60 percent accessibility to hospitals.
