Health minister opens new emergency call center
RIYADH: Following the successful launch of health call centers in the capital a few years ago, Saudi Health Minister Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah has now established a new 937 Service Center. The center aims at serving patients and their families, taking their feedback and providing them with urgently needed health advice.
At the launch, the minister commended the organization’s strong ethos in serving citizens round the clock via a toll-free emergency number on which specialists and physicians respond to inquiries immediately and, if need be, refer callers to consultants. He also expressed gratitude to all those providing the services and encouraged them to increase their efforts.
Al-Rabiah said the Ministry of Health had modified the framework of the center under government direction in order to improve its services and make it more beneficial to both residents and citizens.
He highlighted a number of services the 937 emergency call center aims to provide: medical counseling, internal referral, opportunities for treatment abroad, information regarding heath service sites and receiving complaints/ remarks coming from all government and private health facilities. The complaints are redirected to relevant departments where they are dealt with and action is taken.
“Through these centers, the ministry seeks to satisfy citizens and has been successful with 83 percent of the callers,” the minister said, pointing out that despite challenges, the ministry has been working vigorously to achieve the health goals listed in Saudi Vision 2030.
The center also works on preparing and analyzing statistics in order to understand the performance of health services in the region followed by upgrading and including them in the ministry’s plan for development. The evaluation which is published weekly is closely monitored by the ministry.
The 937 Service Center is an important initiative of the ministry as it provides medical services via telephone to people in all parts of the Kingdom. The number of calls answered during the past five months was 183,355, and those pertaining to medical consultations were 59,672. The role of the center is also to create awareness regarding infectious diseases, toxins and medicines.