JEDDAH, 14 April 2007 — The Health Ministry will establish 14 specialist hospitals in different regions of the Kingdom, introduce a family doctor system and expand the health insurance scheme as part of its efforts to improve health care services for both Saudis and expatriates.
“We have already started building these specialist hospitals in different regions of the Kingdom as part of a health security plan,” Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie told reporters after a meeting of the Executive Health Council.
He also spoke about the ministry’s ambitious plan to introduce a family doctor system, coping with advanced countries. “We have taken practical steps to start this vital project titled ‘A doctor for each family’,” he added.
Al-Manie said the cooperative health insurance scheme would cover the country’s seven million expatriates as well as Saudis working in the private sector this year. “It will be applied later to all Saudis,” he said. The ministry also plans to link all public health facilities with an advanced information network.
The minister admitted that 500 new ambulance vans, which were imported recently to replace old ones, were not of the best quality. “The ministry imported the vehicles on the basis of a report given by the technical committee,” he said, adding that the ministry required 2,000 ambulance vans to cover the whole country.
The Health Ministry is now undergoing a restructuring process. According to Khaled Al-Mirghalani, spokesman for the ministry, the government will establish a national cooperative fund to provide free health insurance coverage to all Saudi nationals after privatizing state-owned hospitals.
Saudis receiving insurance coverage, under the new plan, will be entitled to receive free medical service at private and public hospitals, the spokesman said.
The new system is likely to be implemented next year when all government hospitals will be privatized and brought under companies or groups, after separating them from the ministry.
Mirghalani said the fund, to be financed by the government, would provide health insurance coverage to over 12 million citizens. The ministry would continue to run the country’s primary health care centers, provide child and mother care and take steps for protection against chronic and contagious diseases.
The cooperative health insurance scheme will be implemented for Saudis next year and will cover government employees at the Education Ministry and health ministries, municipalities and other departments. “We have already presented the project to higher authorities for approval and it is being studied by the Higher Committee for Administrative Reorganization,” Mirghalani said.
The project will cover all the 200 hospitals under the ministry. Investments in the Kingdom’s private and public health sectors are estimated to be SR500 billion with an annual expenditure of some SR50 billion. In the 200 hospitals run by the ministry, there are 28,500 beds, 17,448 doctors, 900 pharmacists, 36,710 nurses and 18,723 support staff. Of the total number of 34,600 doctors at private and public hospitals, 22 percent are Saudi. The sector also employs 5,530 pharmacists, 68,089 nurses and 40,000 support staff.
