Health Minister and Chairman of the Saudi Health Council (SHC) Dr. Tawfiq Bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah here Sunday chaired the 95th meeting of the Council which was held at the headquarters of the National Health Emergency Operation Center (NHEOC) in Riyadh. The meeting discussed the Saudi Central Board's services for Accreditation of Healthcare Institutions (CBAHI) in assessing government health sectors. The SHC also went over the capacity-demand approach that aims at helping health sectors plan for future expansions to provide services in a way that accords with the population's needs of healthcare that are prepared by Expenditure and Projects Efficiency Authority and discussed the executive plan that will be applied before its accreditation. The council had checked on the updated mechanism to apply medical coding licensing service, in a bid to support the work of the National Health Information Center and its tasks in terms of data management, enhancing the best use of medical coding system at health facilities in Saudi Arabia and providing them with the accredited coding and unified standards systems. At the end of the meeting, attendees discussed a proposal to form national committees under the umbrella of the secretariat general of SHC, namely a national committee for dentistry and a national committee for medical rehabilitation, which will be tasked with considering scientific and health subjects referred by the secretariat general and the Council. The panels would also prepare policies and standards, revising laws and regulations related to their scientific and health specializations, suggesting their amendments according to specialization or field, suggesting rules of procedures and technical rules, in addition to any other tasks that are added to the committee according to its specialization. On the sidelines of the meeting, Dr. Al-Rabiah and members of the Council toured NHEOC, whose Director General Jameel Abu Al-Enin delivered a comprehensive briefing about the center's tasks and missions in closely detecting and following up on crises and catastrophes, as well as all health events that might affect the health of individuals and could cause mass infections, whether at the level of contagious diseases, fires or human accidents. The minister and members of the Council also had a firsthand look at the performance of hospitals and regions, as well as reports related to novel epidemics, such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the center's official and quick procedures between the Ministry of Health and other relevant public sectors. — SPA
