Health minister receives United Nation delegation

Health Minister Sadiq bin Abdul Kareem Al-Shehabi received at the Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) today, in the presence of the Health Ministry's Under-secretary Dr. Ayesha Buong and a number of Assistant Undersecretaries and officials, a delegation from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The Minister appreciated the delegation's visit aiming to consolidate the Health Ministry's cooperation and coordination with OHCHR and other regional and international human rights organisations and bodies in order to enhance human rights practices. He also briefed the delegation on the Health Ministry's strategy, as well as medical services provided for citizens and residents in the kingdom. Then, the CEO of SMC Dr. Waleed Al Manae staged a presentation on the patients' easy access to medical services in SMC and other health centres across the kingdom, providing statistics showing that the information disseminated by some sides on the reluctance of some patients to go to hospitals and health centres are baseless. In this regard, he asserted that the occupancy rates of the Accident and Emergency Department and Outpatient Clinics exceeds 80% and may reach 100% in some days. He also confirmed that the Health Ministry is always seeking to develop its services and provides comprehensive medical care for free for the citizens and at a very low-cost for expatriates, stressing that those health services do not exists even in developed countries. On her part, Health Ministry's Under-secretary Dr. Ayesha Buong spoke about the specialised committees set up at the Health Ministry to take care of the patients' rights, including the Right to Health Committee, the first of its kind to be established in the Arab world. She also shed light on the team set up to receive patients' complaints and ensure that they are resolved and not repeated. During the same meeting, the Health Ministry also informed the delegation on the specialised training workshop it organizes for its affiliates on the right to health, human rights and professional ethics. On their part, the members of OHCHR delegation thanked the Health Minister and all the Ministry's officials for their distinguished and detailed presentation on the kingdom's health services, which they admired and asserted that they match those available in developed countries. They also underlined that Bahrain is a regional leader in the fields of general, primary and secondary health care, pointing out that the presentation has made the picture clearer for them regarding baseless information about the patients' inability to go to hospitals. In the end, the two sides agreed to continue joint cooperation and interaction in order to provide support for holding training sessions and exchange information.