Healthcare in Saudi Arabia

At present, some (but not all) municipalities provide health services. There is considerable diversity between municipalities in relation to the range and extent of health service provision. Historically, local government health services have been restricted largely to the provision of preventive, promotive and rehabilitative primary care services, with particular emphasis on communicable disease control and environmental health. In addition, some municipalities provide ambulance services on an agency basis for the respective provinces (i.e. ambulance services have historically been a provincial responsibility, but in most cases provinces pay municipalities to provide these services on their behalf). In an effort to reduce fragmentation of health services, some municipalities are increasingly providing integrated preventive and curative primary care services.

This briefing summary is based upon chapter 3 of the 1999 South African Health Review.

The objectives of the HER should be to determine total expenditure on health care and quantify its distribution by type of service, geographic area, and input category, and its sources of finance. It should provide information on all public and private sector sources of finance and providers of services, but not on other health-related activities, such as water supply and sanitation.