Introduction
The central role of Saudi Arabia’s health care policy, as devised by the Ministry of Health (MoH), is to promote quality and accessible health services. In the current healthcare structure, public and private facilities have equal roles in providing medical services, unlike in the past decade, when private institutions acted as auxiliaries. Under the Constitution’s Health for All (HFA) initiative, Saudi Arabians have the right to medical care (Al-Omar et al., 2020). Saudi Arabia’s health care system is decentralized due to privatization. The patient-centered approach has promoted safe and efficient health services, marking an improvement to the prevailing situation in 2010 (Sajjad & Qureshi, 2020). Saudi Arabia has experienced technological changes, policy reviews, and adjustments in the cost of health services. Demographic, social, and economic factors in the Kingdom have promoted the privatization of health services to reduce overpopulation in Saudi public health facilities. Throughout the years, Saudi Arabia has diversified funding in the health sector through the national transformation program (Sajjad & Qureshi, 2020). Saudi Arabia has achieved safe and equitable healthcare through patient-centeredness, a tool that has led to technological and structural changes in the health system.
Healthcare System Evolution in Terms of Quality, Cost, And Innovation
Following the Health for All initiative, the cost of health services in Saudi Arabia has reduced markedly. The Ministry of Health provides most of the all-health services to its people in the current health system. Healthcare decentralization, which has been achieved by shifting the original public managerial roles to the private sector, has impacted the cost of health services, the quality, and technological advancements made by Saudi’s health structure.
The cost of health has been reduced through the intervention of non-government in health management. Over 2100 health facilities have been added to the country’s health system as part of the country’s Health Decentralization Initiative (Alwhaibi et al., 2020). Regarding cost, the Health Service Boom, adopted in 2011 in the Kingdom of Saudi, has reduced health fees in rural areas. Concerning the quality of health services, Saudi Arabia has introduced specialized treatment facilities to complement the ones in the 20th century. Through heavy investment in the health sector, Saudi Arabia has recorded an expansion in the services provided in primary care centers since 1975 (Asnawi et al., 2019). Improved medical devices, such as chemotherapy and radiography instruments, were introduced in Saudi Arabia during the health boom period. The Kingdom was reluctant to embrace the fast-changing technology due to data security and privacy issues. However, with the improvement of security networks and efficiency in medical robotics, Saudi Arabia has transformed both its public and private health sector concerning patient treatment, data storage, and primary and secondary care.
Quality improvement in Saudi Arabia’s Health system over the Past 10 Years
The period between 2011 and 2020 was referred to as the health service boom period in Saudi Arabia. During the boom, Saudi realized its potential in oil production, surpassing the rest of the Middle East states in production and importation. The health sector was the primary beneficiary during the grace period since much of the collected revenue was spent on building health facilities and intensive training of medical personnel. As a result of the interventions, the average spending on training medical practitioners rose to 11% in 2014 from the existing 5% in 2003 (Rahman, 2020). Training has impacted the quality of health services in public and private hospitals. Specialized diagnosis tools for detecting deadly diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and hypertension, were introduced in Saudi Arabia during the boom period through government capitation.
The increased number of hospitals has improved the quality and efficiency of health services. In the past ten years, the Kingdom of Saudi saw an improvement in the number of beds, from 424 in 2010 to 1245 in 2018 (Rahman, 2020). The national transformation program (NTP) was a milestone program introduced in 2016 as part vision 2030 initiative (Asnawi et al., 2019). The program, which took effect in May 2016, has diversified the source of funding in the health sector. The economic plan, introduced by the ministry of health, has improved quality in the health sector by developing efficient health systems, equipping the necessary skills of medical personnel, and improving the rehabilitative, preventive, and curative disease techniques in both public and private hospitals.
Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Saudi Arabia’s Healthcare System
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s health sector has been influenced by socioeconomic factors that have impacted service delivery. Patient’s income and geographical location directly impact Saudi Arabia’s healthcare system. The lack of financial capabilities affects the quality of health services administered by the hospitals. At the same time, geographical location impacts the privatization of health care services in the given country. Concerning geographical settings, most Saudis live in rural areas, whereby public hospitals are dominant. The government health facilities lack specialized treatment for deadly diseases such as diabetes and cancer. 66% of Saudis live in rural areas since only 11% of the secondary and tertiary healthcare systems are found in rural areas (Asnawi et al., 2019). The unbalanced nature of health facilities reduces the quality of services received. Considering their income, private health facilities are expensive, making their services unaffordable to many.
The country has not attained free health services even with the Health for All initiative. The disparity is caused by a lack of quality management control that ensures the funds allocated to the health sector are efficiently used to ensure quality services. Dependence on government funds to afford health facilities is a severe socioeconomic factor affecting Saudi Arabia’s health structure. The quality of health services received in Saudi depends on the patient’s financial status. Currently, the Kingdom faces a severe health problem due to the lack of an efficient care program that offers services depending on one’s social status.
The Role of Privatization in Reducing Cost and Improving Access
Partial or complete transfer of service provision and managerial roles from a public to a private entity is termed health privatization. Saudi Arabia embraced health privatization to reduce government spending and improve the quality of health services through efficient monitoring and evaluation. Currently, 21% of health facilities are managed by private providers, who take full responsibility for giving primary, secondary, and tertiary health care (McPake et al., 2020). In Saudi Arabia, privatization was embraced to strengthen the weak health sector that the policies passed by the government centralized. The element of gratification is achieved through efficient health service delivery, attained through proper funding and management of the health care facilities. Shifting the roles to a private agency, either a profit or non-profit agency improves monitoring and quality control through efficient customer feedback and fast policy review.
How the Health System Has Promoted Patient Satisfaction in Rural Areas
Patient satisfaction is a crucial aspect that the country achieves through the privatization of clinics. The improvement in care delivery increases the aspect of patient retention, thus making the community embrace access to care services. Furthermore, it enhances the patient experience making them willing to continue with the advice given by the providers. In the country, privatization has significantly influenced the cost of care delivery. Patients in the country are paying more to obtain healthcare services because the facilities are more profit-oriented and charging more for their gains. Similarly, the rising cost has further reduced the ability of Saudi Arabians to access the facilities. Even though the private sector has developed a large number of clinics, the element of accessing the services has remained a challenge to individuals who do not have enough income to secure the services.
The Role of Health Innovation in Care Delivery
Innovation in the health sector is introducing either an idea or a medical product that improves treatment and diagnosis. The central role of innovation is to ensure quality delivery of health services and timeliness in operations to ensure efficiency in the health sector. Improved health care translates to a healthy and productive community. Health innovation plays a great time in preventing potential health hazards (Alwhaibi et al., 2020). Prior diagnosis of a particular disease necessitates its prevention from spreading to the larger population. Health information systems are the recent Innovation in Saudi Arabia’s health sector. Innovation has directly impacted the quality, safety, and efficiency of health services since the customers know their rights to their information.
Conclusion
Saudi Arabia has recorded tremendous progress in its health sector over the decades. Privatization of the health sector is a distinctive feature in the Kingdom, which has seen the sector improve in quality, safety, and efficiency. The current advancements in primary, secondary, and tertiary health institutions are due to changes in health policies and the decentralization of activities. The reforms stated by the ministry of health, including diversified funding, have made Saudi Arabia reach its long-term goals. Research and innovation have equipped patients with critical health information to overcome the negative socioeconomic factors that affect Saudi’s healthcare system.
References
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