JEDDAH, 18 August 2003 — Saudi Arabia is likely to privatize some state-run hospitals as a new executive bylaw allows the Health Ministry to sell and rent some of its hospitals to private investors or companies.
A high-level Health Service Council will also be formed under the chairmanship of the health minister and it will prepare a strategy for health care in the country and also propose an improved system for operating government hospitals.
“The proposal regarding hospital privatization by the health minister must be approved by the Cabinet in order to transfer ownership of some ministry hospitals to the private sector,” the executive bylaw of the health system said.
The privatization, “can be carried out either by selling a hospital or renting it to a private investor or a company or changing it to a corporation owned by the state and run on a commercial basis,” the law said. However, the law insisted that such privatization moves should not disrupt public health services in the country, reduce the quality of service or make them prohibitively expensive.
The law aims at providing “comprehensive health care” to people all over the Kingdom in a just and simple manner. “Expatriate workers will receive government health services in accordance with the Cooperative Health Insurance Scheme and its executive bylaws,” the new law said. The scheme is currently being applied to the country’s seven million expatriates.
The new law makes the government responsible for providing health services to foreign pilgrims during the Haj according to the new rules and regulations to be set out by the health minister.
The law instructs primary health care centers to open a single file for a patient and the file should remain the same even if there is a change of the center or region. The law provides administrative and financial powers to health affairs directors and allows each region’s directorate of health affairs to issue licenses to private health institutions.
The proposed Health Service Council will have representatives from the health service sections of the National Guard, the Defense and Aviation Ministry, the Interior Ministry and King Faisal Specialist Hospital.
Other members will be selected from health colleges, the private health sector, the Saudi Health Specialization Authority, the Saudi Red Crescent Society and the Health Insurance Council. “The HSC will set out the Kingdom’s health care strategy and will be presented to the Cabinet for approval. It will also work out a new organization plan for the operation of hospitals run by the ministry and other government departments,” the law said.
The council will also set out health policies for primary health care centers, general hospitals and specialized health service centers, pilgrim health services and public health awareness campaigns. “It is the duty of the Ministry of Health to exert all possible efforts to ensure that citizens all over the country receive primary health care services without delay or discrepancy,” the executive law says.
