Saudi health care: Philips-sponsored EIU report makes key recommendations

A new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) makes key recommendations for tackling the challenge of expanding health care capacity while improving quality care for patients in the Kingdom.
The report titled “Healthcare in Saudi Arabia: Increasing Capacity, Improving Quality” sponsored by Philips provides key suggestions from interviews with a range of experts, including the health care professionals, policymakers and academics who are creating the Kingdom’s health care plans for the future.
“Our goal is to improve patient care and improve lives in Saudi Arabia by delivering innovative solutions and bringing together a multi-stakeholder approach to solving problems,” said Diederik Zeven, general manager of Philips Healthcare Middle East and Turkey.
“Whether it’s through our leading imaging, patient monitoring or home health care technologies or our dedicated training programs for the next generation of Saudi health care professionals, strong local understanding and deep insights into Saudi needs are the key drivers to make sure our innovations and services are truly meaningful,” he added.
A rising demand for health care is putting further pressure on government provided care in Saudi Arabia. An annual population growth of 2.7 percent coupled with high and growing incidences of chronic diseases including diabetes, obesity and heart disease are testing the Kingdom’s existing health care infrastructure while rising health care costs are placing a drain on its financial resources.
The report has established that the government recognizes that the current health care system needs to be more sustainable and notes its plans to build over 100 new hospitals in the coming years.
In addition, the research found that more incentives should be offered to encourage private sector investment in the growing health care space. The private sector can help address the capacity challenges by bringing in talent from overseas to address the resource constraints. Private companies also have a role to play in ensuring good local education and training are available that will support overall growth in the long term.
Innovation in advancing health care standards as well as technological solutions will also be a leading factor for the future of health care in Saudi Arabia, the research reveals.
An earlier report conducted by Philips in 2013, the Meaningful Innovation Index found that only 54 percent of Saudis are satisfied with existing innovations in the areas they considered to be the most important to their lives.
Saudi Arabia’s strategic health care plans include fostering a stronger culture of health care research and development. Awards for excellence in health care research will underpin efforts to develop research and development in the Kingdom.
“The Saudi health care market is the largest market in the MENA region. It is also a rapidly changing if you look closely in five to 10 years, almost 250,000 beds needs to be added to the health care system,” said Zeven.
“Philips is always ready to partner with both public and private health sectors to build the future of health care together,” he added.
By commissioning this Economist Intelligence Unit report, Philips is demonstrating its commitment to bring together the Saudi government, private health care sector and academics to co-create innovative solutions to the challenges facing the health care system, including increasing patient capacity, constraints in local clinical resources and continuing education.
“In 2013, we helped to improve the lives of 1.7 billion people. That’s an incredible number — almost one quarter of the entire population of the world. But we can do better and Philips is dedicated to improving the lives of over 3 billion people a year by 2025. We hope to do this together with the Saudi government executing on their noble vision of world-class health care for Saudi citizens,” Zeven added.
“For a very long time, Philips has been active in Saudi Arabia and in the past years we opened up our own company called Phillips Health Care Saudi Arabia where we jointly venture with Al-Faisalya Group,” said Zeven.
“We have direct presence here and we want to develop the future of health care together with the public and private sector,” said Zeven.
“We believe that the private sector will be the key provider of health care in the future of the Kingdom,” he added.
“Seven years ago, we started developing our own programs and established costumer-training center in Riyadh, Beirut and Dubai. We have a course agenda where we train doctors, nurses and biomedical engineers to stay up to date in this rapidly changed in health care environment,” said Zeven.
Zeven believes that the training is a key ingredient in solving the challenges that Saudi Arabia faces in developing the future of health care.