Analysis Essay on Healthcare System in Saudi Arabia
The overall supervision of the healthcare is left to the government largely; be it public or the private hospitals and sectors. Healthcare system provides universal cover. Generally, the system got two level of operation. The first one being in charge of the networks that concern with the primary healthcare clinics centers which provide basic education and preventions including mobile medical provision in remote areas. Secondly, the government is fully in charge of the specialized facilities and hospitals found in the urban areas. The government instituted healthcare program for its people in the early 1970s by building clinics, laboratories and research centers (Fahd, 2010). To make this possible, the government hires qualifying stuff to work in the hospitals and encourage the young stars to pursue medical course as a way of having a healthy state. From the year 1970, there has been a significance change in health sector. Presently, the number of hospitals is more than a thousand in number. Also, number of medical school in the state is also great. The government has also allowed the private sectors to have medical practices in their colleges and universities. As much as a lot of hospitals are being open annually, the health ministry operates a larger percentage. The remaining percentage is being operated by the agencies own by the government.
Decentralization of health services and autonomy of hospitals
The ministry of health has been given first priorities in terms of planning and strategies. Yearly there is recruitment of the medical stuff including coming up with agreement with the functioning medical companies. Regional directories have seen individuals misspending and lacking of realistic budget. Due to this the ministry of health is in an able position to authorize any expenditure thus the ministry got a bigger say in effective decision-making (Mohammed, 2011). During the past decades the health ministry has tried to bring significant improvement like direct operations. In fact, there is great deal being made by the ministry of health through cooperating with other government such as Germany, Netherlands and other health care companies in different nations. By the merits and demerits of the approaches the government through the ministry have standardize self-direct hospital system to over thirty hospitals in the region. Through this system, public hospital is able to manage their budget at the same time giving quality services.
Health insurance in Saudi Arabia
Ministry of health is facing great challenge due to the fact that health care services come from the government for the public health centers. This has even worst considering the higher growth rate being experienced. To curb such incidences from getting bad, cooperative health care insurance come to the rescue (AL-Ahmadi,2005). The insurance sector created by the government in late 1990s, its mission was to be a regulator health insurances plans for health care market. The cooperative insurance had two faces, those who are the Saudis paid by the employer and non-Saudis
Accessibility to health services
Ministry of health has been employing holistic strategies in providing medical services to every corner of the country that includes general hospital, specialist health center in line with provision of health professional. Sectors like transport, water and power companies have sided with the ministry of health providing services in disadvantage areas and to help people with their needs.
New strategy for health care services
The government of Saudi through the ministry of health care has set up plans and strategies nationally to improve the value of health care. As a matter of fact this plan was approved in April 2009 by the council. The core goal is to widen funding sources; creating human workforce and setting up a monitoring responsibility ministry of health over health service.
Conclusion
Through the past years, the health sector of Saudi has improved compare to the years back. This improvement I seen in all levels: secondary or primary. And this is because of the reforms the ministry of health care brought in with great stress on PHO (Jannadi, 2008). Nevertheless, public health center is still facing a lot of setbacks. These are associated with diversifying finances, privatization of public health centers and management of different chronic diseases. The only way to curb health issues and improve health status in Saudi, Ministry of health should join hands with other sectors in success of health strategy.
Sources: Healthcare System in Saudi Arabia Essay
Almalki, Mohammed, Gerard FitzGerald, and Michele Clark. “Health care system in Saudi Arabia: an overview/Aperçu du système de santé en Arabie saoudite.” Eastern Mediterranean health journal 17.10 (2011): 784.
Albejaidi, Fahd Mohammed. “Healthcare system in Saudi Arabia: An analysis of structure, total quality management and future challenges.” Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences 2.2 (2010): 794-818.
Jannadi, B., et al. “Current structure and future challenges for the healthcare system in Saudi Arabia.” Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management 3.1 (2008): 43.
Hanan, AL-Ahmadi, and Martin Roland. “Quality of primary health care in Saudi Arabia: a comprehensive review.” International Journal for Quality in Health Care 17.4 (2005): 331-346.