The Silents of the Ministry of Health: Why keep silent about our suffering? – Saudi News

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“They took out the cochlear device from my child’s head and let him enjoy his childhood, playing, running and swimming like other children as long as he did not benefit from the implanted device in his head in order to hear. With a promise the next time, and with many promises, I raised more than one letter to the health of Jeddah and even to the ministry, and I am still waiting.”

The father of the girl, Maha, a cochlear implant, wonders: When will these promises end? No, the hospital told us that you do not have the right to obtain the implant supplies or provide them, and my financial circumstances do not help me every time to buy these supplies in light of their high prices, and I cannot attach them to specialized centers for rehabilitation because of the high prices.

Sadly, the father of the child, Saad, said, “I did not expect that the situation would reach me to this extent and became hesitant to the hospital, but rather begging them to provide me with the needs of my child. Three years have passed, and I have been from one appointment to another, and from one trip to another, hoping to get out once during the three years.” The past is a carton for batteries, but those who are calling do not live, as if they are applying the proverb that says “one ear is made of clay and the other is made of dough.” I hope the hospital administrators feel our suffering.

This made Ibrahim’s father pose another question, which is the length of the number of cochlear implants, do the hospital administrators have children with cochlear implants?

Umm Fatima picks up the conversation, and says, “Our circumstances are difficult, and until we provide our child with the implant’s needs, we are saving food and drink. Every piece of the implant is expensive, and our circumstances are difficult and we cannot afford it, and we cannot keep up with the rehabilitation prices. before implanting the implant in her head.

While Father Muhammad described the suffering of his child in one word, that his child had a cochlear implant in his head, but he did not benefit from it because he was unable to provide a replacement headset for the disabled. a week or two.

“I used to think that my child’s life would change and he would enjoy many benefits,” he said. The most important of which is his ability to hear better, but all that has gone with promises.”

Sad stories and lost hopes

Touching words, sad stories, agonizing and carrying pains, lost hopes, flying dreams, lost goals, teary eyes and broken hearts, all because of the high prices of cochlear equipment supplies and their unavailability from hospitals and the lack of continuous rehabilitation for growers that enables them to benefit from the implant by hearing and speaking. .

This suffering is just a few of many. We listened to it and wished we would not listen to it in light of the keenness of our rational government to take care of the citizen and provide his needs, whatever they may be, and because we know for sure that those in charge of the Ministry of Health are very keen to implement the instructions of the guardians to provide all the needs of its children, especially those with special needs. And this makes us wonder why all this silence?!

We carried these pains to the Ministry of Health, to medical institutions, specialized centers, the Asmaak Association, and specialists in rehabilitating cochlear implants in search of solutions that would restore the implanters and their parents the hope of benefiting from the implant, and restore to them the hopes and dreams they drew when they entered the operating room.

Short and long term plans

The beginning of this suffering was lit by the director of the Master of Science Program in Speech, Language and Hearing Disorders and the Bachelor’s Program in Speech, Hearing and Language Sciences at Dar Al-Hekma National University, Dr. Yasser Noman Al-Saabi, who indicated that the role of the speech and language pathologist is one of the most important members of the cochlear implant team and the audio and language rehabilitation process. Whether before or after the cochlear implant procedure, informing the cochlear implant team of the child’s progress in the auditory rehabilitation program, developing a short-term and long-term plan to enhance communication skills, providing continuous assessment, evaluating the child’s speech, language and hearing skills, and training him between the four and six months before The implantation process, using hearing aids continuously, and this would prepare and prepare the child and parents after cochlear implantation, which is followed by introducing the components of the electronic cochlear device and methods of dealing with the device such as installation, operation and cleaning.

Al-Saabi explained that the maximum benefit from cochlear implantation depends on the age of the child when it is implanted. However, the role of the family in rehabilitating their children by talking to them constantly and correcting them is necessary and important, with the advice of the coach to develop communication skills.

The implant needs a lot of support

After these warnings, we went to the President of the Saudi Otolaryngology Society, President of the Arab Academy of Ear, and Director of the King Abdullah Center, Dr. Abdullah Hajar, to find out about the cases of cochlear implants, who began by saying: The decision to examine the early hearing of obligatory newborns and to link the cochlear implant program in the Ministry of Health with The National Program for Examination of Hearing Impairment for Newborns was enough to discover cases of early hearing impairment, which in turn helped solve many cases and find the best ways to treat them, explaining that sensorineural hearing impairment is one of the most common types of hearing impairment, due to consanguineous marriage, indicating that International statistics estimate that two out of a thousand births have severe hearing impairment, either due to genetic or acquired causes, and that the percentage of infection in the Kingdom reaches approximately 4 per 1000 births out of the total number of births in the Kingdom, which reaches approximately 600 thousand births per year. About 25% of them need cochlear implants.

And he indicated that the cochlear implant program should be an integrated program that includes all services for the implants in terms of rehabilitation before and after surgery, while providing all the necessary requirements for the success of the implant, and this is located in the King Abdullah Specialist Ear Center; Which provides integrated services in cochlear implantation and rehabilitation of cochlear implants, as the center is equipped with audio and language rehabilitation specialists and clinics equipped for the rehabilitation and programming process, and also contains materials to assess and train hearing-impaired patients and cochlear implants, adding that since the beginning of the treatment journey, the specialized team is keen to clarify that implantation It is an implant that needs a lot of rehabilitation support in order to bear fruit and show the desired results, through educational lectures and rehabilitation consultations, which are mandatory before transplantation. For this reason, the King Abdullah Specialist Ear Center is distinguished in the field of hearing impairment, the implantation of hearing devices, and a unique medical reference in providing services and a monument For research and refereed scientific studies, and a pioneer in international forums in this field.

On the complaint of some parents about their inability to rehabilitate their children farmers due to the high cost of training in private centers and the lack of adequate training centers in the health sector, Dr. Hajar said: The King Abdullah Specialist Ear Center provides integrated services in terms of audio and language rehabilitation, and is always keen to highlight Highlighting the importance of language rehabilitation after transplantation, as it is the first building block in the success of transplantation, and it enhances the family’s pivotal role in the success of rehabilitation through cooperation with rehabilitation specialists to implement the desired goals and results.

Overpriced rehabilitation sessions

To find out the opinion of the specialized rehabilitation centers regarding their exaggerations in the prices of rehabilitation sessions, we knocked on the door of the person responsible for one of the specialized centers, Rana Mirza, who strongly denied this, stressing that their prices are not high. She said: “On the contrary, the hour does not exceed 190 riyals, as the centers have many obligations to reach the goal of rehabilitating the cochlear implant by providing specialized cadres in the various fields required for rehabilitation, explaining that it touched through the cases registered at the center that they did not benefit from the cochlear implant because of the lack of Obtaining a required qualification.

She attributed this to the distance of time periods for review and to another factor that is more important for the lack of specialization of the current administrators as a result of the fact that their studies are general and not specialized. Because the medical institutions are also referred to as exaggerating their prices, the sales official in one of the medical companies specialized in securing cochlear implants and providing their spare parts, Sameh Abdullah: Our prices are according to the legal pricing, although it is not cheap in value when imported, and we as a national company cannot exceed the instructions In this regard, we lose 30 years of our presence in the market, and our role as suppliers is to coordinate fully with the medical authority to which the implants are supplied based on the terms of government competitions, and the guarantees provided by the company to the implant recipients are well-known guarantees and are in accordance with the terms of government competitions. Regarding that the specialized medical institutions are obligated and responsible to provide the implant supplies free of charge in its first year, he said: The required pieces are supplied based on the conditions of government competitions. Regarding the suspension of their previous attempts with some hospitals to provide cadres to rehabilitate farmers, he said: “The company always seeks to provide specialized training to government medical authorities to provide the best service, and this is done on a regular basis.”

Prices are not high

A sales official in one of the companies specialized in providing cochlear accessories sounded the alarm of a price increase, saying: “The cost has increased and the prices will rise at the beginning of next year, and the current prices are not high, and they are reasonable, but we bear parts of their basic value.” He denied rumors that they were obligated to provide spare parts for implant supplies in the first year free of charge, explaining that the implant hospital is obligated to provide them, not the implant companies.

Passing the qualification of farmers

Because the Cochlear Implanters Association (I hear you) has become a haven for some to resort to to provide cochlear necessities, especially for those who are unable, the association’s executive director, Fahad Al-Subaie, said: “The association’s main goal is to pass the rehabilitation of implants before they reach the age of six and enroll them in public education, and from this point the association Keen to follow up every implant registered with it, and the beginning was in the Riyadh region, and now we have expanded and the number of those registered in Gharbia has reached nearly 200 cochlear implants, and we have been keen, through the donations we receive, to provide the cochlear necessities, some of which we provide to them by bearing parents a percentage of the value.

Al-Subaie revealed that, by following up on some cases, they felt a weakness in rehabilitation, which he attributed to the lack of cadres and to the aftermath of reviews. Hence, the association has provided private clinics for rehabilitation in the sites where it is located, including currently Makkah Al-Mukarramah by providing four clinics for the rehabilitation of behavior, speech, speech and communication, which will start Soon, with the aim of the grower obtaining a linguistic outcome and improving his behavior, he hopes the association will continue to support it until it implements its goals.

He explained that the reasons for their focus on a specific area in providing the needs of farmers is due to the fact that the donor requires that it be granted, noting that the prices of spare parts are exaggerated, yet they made partnerships with each other in reducing prices for some parts, concluding that the association planted in the past 8 cases For non-Saudis.

Lack of qualified cadres and specialists

After all the monitoring, it was necessary to know the opinion of the first official in charge of the cochlear implant program at the Ministry of Health, the consultant of otolaryngology and the auditory nerve consultant, and the leader of the cochlear implant path in the specialized centers, Dr. Ahmed Al-Dhafiri, who revealed a shortage in the number of qualified cadres and specialists in some centers Cochlear implants.

He attributed the reason to the difficulty of obtaining them, pointing out that this shortage exists in many countries, and that the Ministry of Health is currently working to cover the need in various cochlear implant centers in the Kingdom. Dr. Al-Dhafiri explained that the number of centers is 13, and the number of transplanted cases in 2021 is more than 400, and on consumables and maintenance, he said: “It depends on the warranty period of the device, indicating that the planter hospital and the company are responsible for the device, and for patients who are transplants during the warranty periods. The Ministry has sought to raise the warranty years for new devices from one year and three years to five years in the upcoming devices. As for those that are out of warranty, the hospital is responsible for transplant patients with the capabilities available to it, and we are currently working with cochlear implant centers on the initiative to organize procedures regarding the exchange of consumables. of post-guarantee transplantation and facilitating patients’ access to it.” He added: “With regard to the damage of the external processor for cochlear implants, the patient must visit the hospital to examine the device in cooperation with the selling company to treat it. If the damage is within the warranty period, it will be replaced. with the capabilities available to them.

Finally, we wished to close the file of the suffering of cochlear implants by sharing the opinion of the health affairs in Jeddah, which received our inquiries in this regard 20 days ago, but it indicated to us that those inquiries were sent to the Ministry and did not receive the answers from them.

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