Ambassador: Uthra Mohan
1. Which aspects of Pandemic Preparedness is most pertinent to your country and why?
Health human resources are a crucial component of mitigating the effects of and managing a pandemic. While the physician density of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is higher than the regional average, the health human resource system needs improvement in the following areas:
1. Composition of Health professionals - About 61% of health professionals are expatriates. This has resulted in high turnover rates and instability. Having a stable supply of front-line workers during a pandemic is very important.
2. Urbanization – With 85% of the population in urban areas, there are few health professionals serving rural areas. Being able to detect and respond to the needs of those living in rural areas during a pandemic is of importance.
3. Unique considerations – Every year, over 1.3 million pilgrims visit the KSA during Hajj and Umra. The high density of people greatly increases the risk of spreading communicable diseases. Saudi Arabia is the main provider of health services to all pilgrims, putting a major stress on the health care workers.
4. Leadership – Leadership of health professionals is a prerequisite for handling pandemics as well as for treatment of those affected by the pandemic.
2. How would you as the WHO Ambassador of your country address this issue?
I would take the following steps to strengthen human health resources:
1) Education and training - Encourage Saudization by investing in medical education and training of Saudi citizens to become health professionals. Particular focus on leadership and management training in dealing with pandemics is an important step in ensuring a strong pandemic preparedness plan. This is part of the cooperative strategy between the WHO-EMRO and Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health. To decrease high turn-over rates, financial incentives for expatriates to serve for a particular length of time in KSA can be implemented.
2) Saudia Arabia’s unique system has a strong focus on the doctor-patient encounter compared to patient encounters with other health professionals. By training other health professionals (eg. Nurses, Nurse Practitioners) as well as doctors to serve in rural areas, the urban-rural disparities could be addressed.
3) To address the need for health professionals during Hajj, I would appeal to other countries whose citizens come to the KSA for the pilgrimage to provide short-term relief of the strain on our own health providers.
3. How has your country addressed Pandemics in the past? What would you have done differently?
The KSA has experienced various pandemics in the past. The most recent efforts to implement measures against H1N1 during Hajj and Umra have proven to be very successful. The development of the Jeddah Recommendations ensured that there were only 73 confirmed cases of H1N1 out of the 1.3 million pilgrims. Measures included screening of all those entering KSA, vaccinating all health care workers and recommending vaccines to all pilgrims. Further, there was wide-spread education on personal hygiene. The use of network of telecommunications to monitor the spread of infection as well as ensuring the availability of adequate curative methods such as antivirals ensured that an outbreak could be mitigated. This serves as a good model for containing future outbreaks.
4. Which countries do you see yourself becoming allies or rivals with? Why?
The KSA’s allies include the United States, the E.U. as well as Japan largely due to economic reasons. The USA’s Center for Disease Control has been a crucial part of the Jeddah recommendations, so the KSA would ally with the US, as well as other countries willing to aid the development of KSA’s health human resources.