On the sidelines of a workshop to establish poison centers, a delegation from the Sudanese Health Federal Ministry visits the University Hospital.
The General Director of JUH, Prof. Jamal Melhem, received on Tuesday, a delegation of experts from the Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health, accompanied by the Regional Adviser to the Environmental Health Office - World Health Organization, Dr. Mazen Malkawi.
This visit - which comes after a workshop organized by the Regional Office for Environmental Health/ WHO – is on providing assistance to establish a national poison center in Sudan, meanwhile, the delegation learnt about the capabilities and services of the Jordanian National Poison Center at the university hospital and how to share knowledge and be part of available practical experiences.
Dr. Melhem welcomed the visiting delegation, stressing the importance of providing knowledge and scientific expertise by the hospital relying on its experience, he also stressed on drawing on the expertise of the National Poison Center, which is based in the hospital, pointing to the need to assist developing countries and provide the necessary support to establish environmentally sound policies and practices to establish specialized centers for poisons.
For his part, the Director of the Medical Laboratories and Forensic Medicine Department, Prof. Kamal Al-Hadidi, explained the importance of the National Poison Center, which is the only, accredited, and specialized center in the Kingdom for its explicit services that focus on answering inquiries and providing specialized medical, pharmaceutical and nursing advice about any toxic substance that any citizen might be exposed to, whether medicines, insecticides, household cleaners, chemicals, plants and stings from scorpions and poisonous snakes according to the latest scientific foundations and from reliable sources, adding that the center provides its services from 8:00 AM until 10:00 PM, noting that the workers in the center had an active contribution in issuing instructions for the establishment of poison centers in cooperation with the World Health Organization office in Geneva, thanking the organization for the support it provides in the field of training and rehabilitation to raise the good reputation of center and its staff.
The visiting delegation thanked the University Hospital administration and the medical laboratories administration for the hospitality and reception, stressing their desire to benefit from the hospital experience represented by the National Poison Center to establish a specialized drugs and poisons center, and to train their staff to improve the level of services provided.
The delegation attended to a detailed explanation provided by the pharmacist Suhad Al-Khasawneh about the National Poison Center, its mechanism of work, databases, activities, and services provided to the hospital and to all governmental and private sectors, including other hospitals, pharmacies, and health centers in addition to the public.
The delegation toured the hospital's medical laboratories including the toxicology laboratory to learn about the tests and equipment available for this purpose.
The meeting was attended by several scientific experts and researchers at the chemical laboratories of the Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Salah Al-Hayari, WHO Interim Adviser, Deputy Director-General of the Hospital for Administration, Professor Dr. Mahmoud Mostafi, Director of the Medical Laboratory and Forensic Service, Professor Kamal Al-Hadidi and pharmacist Suhad Al-Khasawneh from the National Center for Drugs and Poisons.