Initially, staff at the integrated health areas were unclear about their responsibilities and relatedness within the system. Therefore, the technical department in Asir General Directorate of Health Affairs launched in-service training to help overcome some of these inadequacies. Regular conferences were held between the directors and assistant directors for health in the integrated health areas and their counterparts in the General Directorate for continuous assessment of the experience. Responsibility for the main hospitals in the integrated health areas and for disease control and environmental health programmes was delegated to the integrated health area administrations, and funds were given by the regional administration specifically for these activities. It became possible to graft the organization of the health system on to the organizational structure of the regional and local administration.
Direct management is done through the integrated health areas.
The execution of the decisions and the management of the services of the area are the responsibility of the manager of the area. The plans make up the integrated health plan for the whole region. As a basis for preparing the health plans, Asir General Directorate of Health establishes minimum or basic norms for health staff, centres or services, determines the purposes or objectives of the services, and lays down criteria for assessing the effectiveness and productivity of health programmes. The General Directorate of Health in Asir maintains responsibility for the overall health policies that are to be implemented by the integrated health areas. Funds are used to run the integrated health area hospital, primary health care centres, disease control programmes and environmental health services, which are responsibilities delegated to the peripheries.