BD15m medical devices imported

MEDICAL devices worth more than BD15 million were imported into the country during the first five months of this year.

The National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) rose above the challenges posed by Covid-19 and licensed six new warehouses for pharmacies and 40 new healthcare facilities in the country.

NHRA chief executive Dr Maryam Al Jalahma said her pro-active team also evaluated 17 hospitals and 23 health centres until the end of May.

“The NHRA evaluated 4,371 new devices of which 88 per cent were approved, and imported equipment worth BD15,687,218.35 during this period,” said Dr Al Jalahma.

She was speaking at a virtual government media briefing organised by the National Communication Centre on the NHRA’s 2021-2025 strategy yesterday.

“We could achieve this by working diligently on our plans and goals and the authority is committed to increasing and enhancing the quality of its services,” Ms Al Jalahma said.

“As we continue our supervisory and regulatory role, in line with Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030, in the context of the global pandemic, immediate changes were implemented to ensure continuity in our operations and services.

“Until the end of May, we have 808 licensed healthcare centres.

“Even during Covid-19 situation, we received 52 requests to set up new healthcare facilities.

“We issued licences for 40 and renewed 289 licences from January until May 2021.”

There are 18,419 active licensed medics in Bahrain of which 21 are visiting doctors.

The NHRA renewed 17,485 licences while receiving 582 requests for new permits for medics this year.

“The NHRA also evaluated 17 hospitals and 23 health centres in this period, as well as 365 pharmacies, of which 289 were privately-owned and 76 were inside government healthcare centres.

“During these five months we also licensed six new warehouses of these pharmacies, taking the total to 18 in the country.

“Two new pharmaceutical facilities – a scientific office and a pharmacy services centre – were also licensed, while inspectors conducted 314 checks.”

A total of 3,611 medicines were registered, while NHRA processed 935 import orders for temporary medicines that were not registered in Bahrain in this span. It also received 7,607 requests for training.

Requests

“We had 184 requests for new medicines, 173 renewals for medicine licences, 490 requests on change of medications. We did pricing for 888 drugs as well as categorised 125 products.

“During this period we opened the first local factory for medicines, approved six vaccines and two drugs for Covid-19.”

The authority also received 63 complaints – 41 direct calls while 10 were from healthcare centres, 12 were transferred to the Public Prosecution. Among these 22 were against government centres and 19 against private facilities.

“The NHRA disciplinary committee completed investigation into 52 complaints which accounts for 64pc of the issues raised. Sixteen people faced disciplinary action with 12 suspensions and four warnings.

“No medical error or malpractices were recorded until May this year.

“NHRA also received 84 queries related to investment in Bahrain from GCC markets, Europe and Asia and received 1,130 emails in this regard.

 

Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/949859/BD15m-medical-devices-imported

 

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