H.E. Dr. Mohammed bin Saif Al-Hosni, Undersecretary of Ministry of Health for Health Affairs patronized recently the honoring ceremony of the participants of the "Program of Accelerating Open-Heart Surgery for Children" working in the National Heart Center of the Royal Hospital.

The ceremony, which held at the main conference room of the Center, attended by Dr. Qasim Al-Salmi, Director General of Royal Hospital and Dr. Salim Al-Maskari, Director of the National Heart Center along with a number of medical cadres and administrators.

The Program, that has been pursued two-week, aimed at accelerating the open-heart surgery for the children who suffer from congenital heart defects, reducing the waiting lists for operations appointments. In addition to exchanging experiences among the medical cadres on promoting the specialized healthcare in the field of open-heart surgery. 

The preparation to implement the Program has started four-months ago to perform the necessary examinations for the children planned to undergo for the operations. Furthermore, to address the challenges and solutions, as well as coordination and check the readiness of all departments of the Center. 

It is worth mentioning that, all the Center's Departments including doctors from various specializations, allied health groups, medical staff from in-patients wards, operations, ICUs, laboratories, technical support and administration departments have participated in the Program. In addition to the participation of a voluntary medical team from Australia specialized in heart diseases included (10) specialized nursing cadres and (1) ICU consultant.

Within two-week of the Program, the total of (41) open-heart surgeries has been performed successfully