مجموعة ٢/٥٤ "لجنة الشرق الأوسط (الرسمية): مجموعة العمل" [ظ‎‎١‎٠‎٠] (٦٤٢/٢٠٠)

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labour, but which has rocoivcd some Government encouragement.#r
8 . Health
In a country so backward and undeveloped as Saudi -Arabia
it is natural that the health problems are innumerable*
t There is an urgent need for greater facilities for workers in
preventive medicine as well as in pathology. In the fields
of preventive medicine not only the general work of hygien^o
, .and elimination of insect borne diseases, but also the
special question of Quarantine in connexion with the annual
influx of thousands of pilgrims from other countries of the
Moslem world, present an enormous problem, the solution of
which has only begun to be attempted.> « In - the field of
preventive medicine there is a special need for ophthalmological
work. (Of patients attending for eye treatment in Jedda,
a quarter are blind in one or both eyes.) *,
Until recently medical work in Saudi Arabia was
conducted almost entirely by Syrians. A small group of
Syrian doctors was established at.Jedda under a Syrian
director for public health. In 1948, however, a British
public health expert. Doctor Gorki!!, and an export in
pathology. Colonel Manifold have been appointed to advise on
the reorganisation of the health system with particular
reference to the pilgrim quarantine arrangements, and a
British eye •■specialist, Doctor Longinotto has been working
for the past 2^ years in .the Jodda Government General
Hospital. In addition, a field ambulance, manned by two
German doctors, has been travelling round the interior.
The British advisors appointed by the-:Government have
proposed a large scale plan of reorganisation and development
for the country’s health services. Already three million
rtyale have been allocated by the Government for this purpose
and. it is intended to enlarge the hospital at Jedda and to
build a new eye hospital there, ;and also to build a hospital
, at Dammam on 'the Persian Gulf. A hospital .with 140 bods
has also recently boon opened in Mecca. A -school for
training sanitary inspectors, is to be established at Jodda
and a Sudanese Public Health Inspector is to be appointed.
Recommendations for starting a school for training nurses
midwives and health visitors, under British direction,
have been made. Doctor Gorki11 has already obtained some
.of the essential equipment from this country and a
considerable quantity of medical stores have been
presented to the Saudi-Arabian Government by His Majesty’s
Government. The equipment already installed includes X-ray
apparatus and machines for the large-scale disinfestation of
the fly-ridden towns.
It would thus appear that Dr. Gorki11 has succeeded,
by his energy and enthusiasm, in establishing a new
approach to medical problems in Saudi Arabia. In a recent
letter, he has written that: ”1 believe the biggest
difficulties are over, i.e. (a) the Syrian opposition,
(b) Islamic.conservative opposition, (c) the starting of
the charges.” ‘
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