Nine Bahrain health centers get over 3.1 million visits in a year

Agencies | Manama                       

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com  

The directives of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, have contributed to the provision of healthcare services in nine health centers operating 24 hours a day across the Kingdom.

The around-the-clock operations of the healthcare centers have contributed to the enhancement and sustainability of the health sector services, to the efficiency in dealing directly with daily cases and to the reduction of the number of cases referred to government hospitals, enabling them to deal only with difficult cases.

Since their inauguration, the primary healthcare centers have contributed around the clock in following up urgent cases according to an approved international classification, taking into account symptoms and vital signs. Urgent cases are evaluated in primary health care centers using the "Modified Manchester System" and the "Canadian System".

The opening of the centers that operate around the clock had direct results related to ease of access to service and improvement of the quality of performance.

The enhancement has been confirmed by the statistics regarding urgent cases in the nine centers, which from July 2021 to June 2022, recorded more than 3,133,000 visits to all center departments.

The percentage of appointments in the urgent cases departments constituted only 8.2% of the total number of visits that stood at 257,059.

Of the visits to the urgent cases department, 7.9% (20,182) were referred to the emergency department in government hospitals, and 13.9% of the total referrals were by ambulance.

Primary health care is the cornerstone of sustainable health systems necessary to achieve a comprehensive health coverage and the health-related sustainable development goals.

The primary health care approach is based on a wide range of policies to address the main causes and risks leading to morbidity, in addition to providing preventive, diagnostic, curative and rehabilitative services.

The health centers working around the clock are: North Muharraq Health Center and BBK Center in Muharraq Governorate, the Hamad Kanoo Health Center, Youssef Engineer Health Center and Jaw Askar Center in the Southern Governorate, the Sitra Health Center and Jidhafs Health Center in the Capital Governorate, and the Mohammed Jassim Kanoo Health Center and the Sheikh Jaber Health Center in the Northern Governorate.