Ammon News - Jordan is setting in motion multiple strategies to address the ramifications of overcrowding and its subsequent costs on its health sector, using tech-infused scientific solutions to boost the efficiency of the healthcare system, according to Minister of Health Firas Hawari.
Speaking at a seminar organized by the Jordan News Agency (Petra) last Thursday, the minister highlighted a number of measures to resolve the issue, including building new hospitals, building a virtual hospital and leveraging technology to manage pharmaceutical warehouses, in addition to challenges undermining the sector, including the increasing number of refugees hosted in the Kingdom and the dwindling international support for countries hosting Syrian refugees.
Hawari explained that Jordan, over the past century, has received waves of refugees from different countries, the latest of which was a wave of Syrian refugees who are estimated to be 1.3 million in number, indicating that of those 10 percent of Syrian refugees are living in camps, while 90 percent are living in governorates across the Kingdom. Coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis, which have burdened the national economy, the waves of refugees have impacted bed capacity, bringing down the number of available beds in the Jordanian health sector from 1.8 beds per thousand people to 1.42 beds per thousand people. The World Health Organization does not recommend that the number of beds be less than one bed per 1,000 citizens, according to the classification of low-income countries, while for middle-income countries such as Jordan, the criterion is 3.9 beds per thousand people.
Nonetheless, the ministry has remained unwavering in providing basic health services to Syrian refugees on an equal basis with Jordanians, especially medical services that are subsidized by 85 percent to non-Jordanians, who are not covered by health insurance, the minister underscored. In this regard, the minister warned of the diminishing financial support of the international community for countries hosting Syrian refugees, negatively impacting the sustainability and resilience of the national health sector.
He stressed the importance of the financial support provided to Jordan, one of the largest host countries for Syrian refugees, noting that he spoke with the World Health Organization's President and Regional Director during a recent visit to Geneva about the need for the organization and donors to continue supporting refugees in Jordan as well as the Jordanian health sector.
Highlighting achievements and measures, Hawari stated that the ministry is forging ahead with implementing royal directives to develop and improve the healthcare system, by providing decent health services for patients, building new hospitals, introducing technology to healthcare, automating electronic files in all hospitals, upgrading primary health services provided in health centers, improving the efficiency of the sector through an electronic system for supply chains and medications and following a participatory approach with the Jordanian Royal Medical Services, universities, the private sector and civil society institutions.
On hospital buildings, the minister indicated that in addition to establishing about six new hospitals in different governorates, which, he noted, is costly, the ministry is looking into alternative plans to deal with overcrowding, such as improving primary health care provided in health centers, using the family medicine approach.
As for a tech-infused solution to overcrowding, the minister pointed to virtual hospitals, a prospective joint venture with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, that would reduce the admission of patients to central hospitals and provide similar healthcare services. The virtual hospital, he continued, will be electronically linked with major hospitals in the Kingdom with the aim of cutting staff and patient transfers to other hospitals by having a specialist physician look over the scans and medical records of a patient and produce a report and diagnosis for doctors in hospitals on the outskirts.
On pulling through the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister pointed out that Jordan, despite the small number of beds available, has proven its resilience emerging stronger and tougher from the crisis due to the effective management of the health sector and beds. During the pandemic, the Ministry of Health opened 6 hospitals with a capacity of 650 beds, expanded and equipped 36 health centers and raised the efficiency of 150 other centers. It also merged a number of primary health centers into comprehensive centers to improve the services provided, doubling the scholarships of doctors for main specialties and sub-specialties and increasing the number of doctors accepted in the residency program in line with the ministry's plans to bring in more specialist health professionals and train them and enhance their skills.
Hawari noted that the ministry was able to fill the shortage in a number of medical specialties through agreements made with a number of universities, which landed it accreditation from the Jordan Medical Council for nine new specialties.
On pharmaceutical warehouses, the ministry will work with the World Health Organization, through a grant of JD5 million to establish new drug storage spaces in the Ministry of Health, in which an electronic system will be used to link the warehouses with hospitals to control drug stocks and consumption and reduce waste, he added.
Another ministry solution for the waiting period in emergency rooms and the lack of beds is to establish a central control site that provides an indirect service to patients through an updated map that shows the number of available beds, which enables the transfer of patients to other emergency rooms within minutes, while also determining the transportation mechanism (by land or air) and its availability as quickly as possible, the minister pointed out.
On shortages in medication, Hawari confirmed during the seminar that the ministry will purchase medicines this year through bids covering a period of 22 months, a first in the history of the ministry, explaining that there was a shortage of some types of medicines due to the delay in informing the pharmaceutical companies of the bids as a result of the financial dues owed to the ministry. He indicated that this issue was resolved with the companies by making financial payments, assuring that there no longer is a medication shortage problem.
Jordan, he underscored, is fully committed to achieving comprehensive health coverage by 2030, indicating that about 3.9 million people are covered by civil health insurance, while 1.9 million Jordanians are not covered by health insurance, in addition to the 1.3 million Syrian refugees.
On its 2023-2025 strategy, launched last March, Hawari said that the ministry has sustainability at the core of its plans for the health sector, accounting for all possible issues and circumstances and adopting the model of public health and preventive medicine and the family health model in primary health care. The strategy aims to achieve one of the most important strategic objectives on improving access to primary and preventive health care services with quality, fairness and effective community participation, implementing programs to combat communicable diseases, controlling their spread, following up the national vaccination program and introducing new vaccines.
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