This month’s highlight is the grand Dh20 million cash prize, along with 10 additional Dh100,000 prizes, and a chance to win a Maserati Ghibli
A senior official has said that the ministry aims to expand the student health checkup programme by adding mobile units manned by trained specialists to identify health issues in students based in rural areas. The programme has recently been expanded further to include dental checkups.
However, officials said the success of the plan depends on availability of financial resources which are still under discussion.
Dr Mahmoud Fikri, Assistant Undersecretary for Health Policies, said a suggestion by the School Health Department to set up a mobile unit would help in providing basic health tests as well as the required treatment for children on the spot.
The ministry, officials said, has already been providing this service to students through its primary health centres (PHCs).
“We have been carrying out tests on students in these areas with collaboration with PHCs where the staff screen the students and then come back to the centre and records the results,” said Dr Mariam Matroushi, Director of School Health at the ministry.
“A mobile unit will save effort and time but the expansion plan is based on the availability of financial and human resources,” she told Khaleej Times after a recently held meeting explored a number of other possibilities as well. The department’s comprehensive school health programme screens students for hearing problems, dental, blood haemoglobin, urine and clinical examinations, in addition to the body mass index (BMI), vision tests and psychological tests.
Officials said the tests are mandatory since diseases such as anaemia, diabetes and Thalassaemia go undetected for years until they become full-blown cases.
The possibility of establishing an electronic health data for each student in different educational stages was also discussed.
“This is also a proposal that can be successful only after a number of factors are in place,” said Dr Matroushi.
Physical fitness tests were also done for 1,343 university, college and nursing institute students between September 2010 and June 2011.
This month’s highlight is the grand Dh20 million cash prize, along with 10 additional Dh100,000 prizes, and a chance to win a Maserati Ghibli
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