King Abdul Aziz Medical City - Riyadh held the General Staff Meeting MERS-CoV Outbreak Experience and Future Planning under the patronage of H.E. Chief Executive Officer of Ministry of National Guard - Health Affairs, Dr. Bandar Al Knawy Thursday, the 17th of September 2015. The open dialogue meeting was marked by the large presence of staff members from the medical, nursing, technical, operational, and administrative departments, as well as all other health discipline sections. The meeting started with a presentation given by Dr. Al Knawy covering several important preventive and precautionary measures that have been taken to promptly combat the MERS-CoV and harness all available resources; he also praised the significant role of the MERS-CoV Command and Control Center.
Moreover, Dr. Al Knawy pointed out the potential benefits through the healthcare system-wide redesign and reengineering of the Ministry of National Guard – Health Affairs. The fundamental focal point will be patient flow and infection control through a healthy environment, in accordance with the highest international standards and medical protocols, to deal with the large inflow of patients in emergency rooms; while ensuring the emergency department remains uncongested. This approach will be implemented soon after upgrading the emergency departments and setting up new sections to screen patients presenting with any respiratory tract infection symptoms in order to prevent any unnecessary contact with other patients.
Dr. Al Knawy also recognized the success of the workshops held and the efforts made by everyone to address this experience and benefit from it while encouraging all attendees and employees of MNG-HA to participate in the journey towards Cultural Transformation in our healthcare system, as well as building trust and commitment in our patients through a direct exchange of views and proposals.
During the meeting, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the Executive Director, Infection Prevention and Control- MNG-HA, gave a scientific presentation where she reviewed the mechanism of MERS-CoV transmission and the most crucial means of how to keep it under control; followed a presentation by Dr. Saadi Taher, Executive Director of Medical Services at KAMC-R where he covered the scientific steps for the implementation of a preventive and precautionary plan in the Command and Control Center. Dr. Balkhy also highlighted the most important achievements that followed.
In conclusion, the meeting was commended for the absolute transparency of the information and statistics presented, as well as the open dialogue for anyone to be able to voice their inquiries, ideas and suggestions..