RIYADH, 5 September 2005 — The need for administrative efficiency in, and financing of, health care services in the Kingdom will be among the topics that figure on the agenda of the 1st International Conference in Health Care Economics and Endowments to be held here from Sept. 12-14.
Senior officials from the Kingdom and abroad, including Dr. Khaled Al-Aiban from the Ministry of Health, Dr. Fawaz Alalami, deputy minister of commerce and industry for technical affairs, and Dr. Towfiq Khoja, director general, Executive Board, Health Ministers’ Council for GCC states, will be among the keynote speakers at the conference, which will be held at the King Faisal Hall.
Dr. Fahad Alorifi of King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, the organizer of the conference, said the conference is taking place at a time when the Kingdom is poised for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This would mean streamlining the health care sector and extending the health care services through government hospitals in rural areas.
Besides health care financing through the private sector, the conference will discuss the role of public charitable institutions in creating health care endowments, Dr. Alorifi said, adding that the whole thrust of the deliberations will be how to relieve financial burden on the government as the primary provider of health care services in the Kingdom.
Dr. Ihsan Buhulaiga, member of the Shoura Council and one of the speakers at the conference, told Arab News that the theme of his presentation would be “Saudi health care economics: Past, present and future.”
Pointing out that health care services are concentrated mainly in the urban areas at present, Dr. Buhulaiga said future of expansion would be in small townships and villages. “This means there will be new investment opportunities in the sector together with growing utilization of IT for promoting administrative efficiency.”
“We are moving toward the use of smart card for streamlining the health care management system to achieve optimum utilization of the facilities through the rationalization of resources,” he said.
