Ministry of Health announces sweeping 2023-2025 strategy

AMMAN — Under the patronage of Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh, the Ministry of Health on Sunday launched its 2023-2025 strategy, which focuses on establishing an integrated health system and provides equal and efficient healthcare.

Inaugurated by Health Minister Feras Al Hawari, on behalf of the prime minister, a number of ministers, dignitaries, deputies, government officials, donors and health experts were in attendance, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Hawari described the ministry's strategy as “modern and applicable”, noting that it is the first strategy to be adopted following the spread of COVID-19.

The strategy comes as a translation of the ministry's commitment to achieving the Royal vision, specifically, the executive plan of the Economic Modernisation Vision, in line with the public sector modernisation roadmap, he said.

According to Hawari, the strategy also aims to keep pace with Jordan’s international commitments to improving the quality of health services in the ministry's hospitals and health centres, taking into account local and global changes including the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and an international shift towards developing rehabilitative, palliative and psychological health services.

Through the strategy, the Ministry of Health will bolster preventive medicine in the Kingdom by introducing new vaccines within the national vaccination programme.

The ministry will also improve services related to mental health, reproductive health, family planning, the health of the elderly, environmental health and health at schools. The ministry will also launch campaigns on healthy living to raise awareness among the Jordanian public. 

Over the next three years, the ministry will establish a number of health centres, and will renovate and modernise the infrastructure of already existing health centres and hospitals.

Similarly, a number of ambulance and emergency departments in several hospitals will be established, and a variety of field hospitals will be reopened. 

In accordance with the strategy, the ministry will complete the automation of many services provided at hospitals and health centres, and will ensure the effective management of medical and non-medical stocks.

As part of its most notable priorities for the next three years, the ministry will work on improving its crisis management and response plans, in coordination with the concerned authorities, to face future crises, disasters, refugee influxes and climate change.

Additionally, health insurance will cover a larger segment of Jordanian society, according to the strategy.

The ministry will also institutionalise a general framework for follow-up, evaluation and accountability, bolster the regulatory and monitoring role of the ministry in medical tourism, increase residency and scholarship programmes and adopt professional development programmes to enhance the skills, knowledge and efficiency of health personnel.