COMPLEX SYSTEMS
Abuzinadah said nursing groups in the kingdom had warned the health ministry about systemic problems in hospitals and poor government oversight.
She said they had called for better enforcement of infection control procedures – something Madani says is now being implemented – and independent regulators for hospitals and healthcare professionals.
The only official body now overseeing healthcare workers is the Saudi Commission for Health Specialities, whose board is chaired by the minister. According to its website, it is responsible only for training and setting standards, not for regulating or evaluating performance.
Hospital regulation is run by the health ministry, which also manages many of the country’s hospitals.
Other hospitals are run by private healthcare companies and by other state bodies, adding to the complexity of the system.
“It’s a complicated country. Even people like Memish (the deputy minister sacked last week) don’t really have access to everything (in terms of patient data and information),” said Christian Drosten, a University of Bonn virologist who has worked on MERS with Saudi scientists.
Many of the people who spoke to Reuters for this story said the creation of a new control and command center should help coordinate the response to MERS.
The new center, announced by Fakieh on June 1, aims to bring together public health, research, infection control, clinical operations and data analysis into a new unit.
“Before, our issue was with communication – other ministries only knew what was going on by reading the newspapers,” said the private hospital head who had dealt with MERS last year. “Now, everyone is involved.”
(Reuters)
