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main aim was an urgent need to bridge the gap between what is “known” about how to improve performance of health system and what is actually “done” to change policy and practice – the ‘know–do’ gap. The same applies in the field of surgery, where research should aim at responding to country health needs and where operational research is being promoted by WHO to make use of research findings to improve service delivery.
Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As WHO is committed to reviving health for all through primary health care, particular interest is being paid to training and retraining of the health workforce in order to better respond to the changing health needs of the population.
Since Alma Ata, WHO has been promoting innovative approaches to health personnel education aimed at addressing community health issues and at solving their priority health problems. WHO, in partnership with the World Federation of Medical Education, is actively promoting community-oriented medical education and the family health model in service delivery.
In this respect, we are proud of the important accomplishments in strengthening family medicine in Saudi Arabia, which aim at covering all families in the near future. Similar pioneering efforts are being promoted by WHO in all countries of the Region. Indeed, the move towards family practice represents one of the major strategic directions of the Qatar Declaration, adopted and signed by all ministers of health in the Region in 2008.
WHO has already documented the importance of surgical services in supporting primary health care and the necessary links between primary care services and surgical facilities in district, provincial and tertiary care hospitals. Indeed, surgeons who are well trained and retrained using the findings of operational research play a key role in improving access to primary health care services.
Recent advances have provided great opportunities to develop new technologies, mainly in the surgical field. Surgical research has made enormous contributions to human health. For that, I congratulate the Saudi Board of General Surgery for its initiative to invest in surgical research since 1993, and for its efforts to date in accrediting about 27 programmes.
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Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish every success for the Saudi Surgical Research and Residents Day, and I encourage other countries in the Region to organize similar days and to cooperate in arranging a regional day in the near future. Once again, I am grateful for this opportunity to be among fellow surgeons and residents, and I hope that the recommendations of this important event will support our endeavors to achieve the noble goal for health for all.
