The Health Care Network

To meet all the health needs of Saudi citizens from preventive care through advanced surgery, the Kingdom implemented a two-tier health service plan. The first tier is a network of primary health care centers and clinics established throughout the country. The number of such facilities, which provide preventive, prenatal, emergency and basic health services, rose from 591 in 1970 to over 3,300 by 2000. These centers are supplemented by a fleet of mobile clinics that routinely visit the more remote villages, dispensing vaccines and performing basic medical services.

By reaching people throughout the country, these centers and clinics have contributed greatly to the improvement of health standards in the general public. They were instrumental in reducing the infant mortality rate in the Kingdom from 68 per 1,000 births in 1980 to less than 30 twenty years later. Close to 100 percent of all Saudi children are immunized against common diseases.

The primary care centers and clinics are backed by a network of advanced hospitals and specialized treatment facilities. Strategically placed in major urban areas throughout the country to be accessible to all, they constitute the second tier of the Saudi health plan. In 1970 there were 74 hospitals with 9,039 beds in Saudi Arabia. By 2003, there were 333, with a capacity of 47,339 beds. With a population of 22.1 million, Saudi Arabia's ratio of one hospital bed per 440 people is among the lowest in the world.

The Ministry of Health bears primary responsibility for the Kingdom's health care program. It operates 62 percent of the country's hospitals and 53 percent of its health care clinics and centers.  Most of the remaining hospitals and clinics are operated by the private sector, but the functions of these facilities and the training of their staff are supervised and supported by the Ministry of Health. Other government agencies, such as the Ministries of Education and Defense, the National Guard and the Public Security Administration have their own hospitals and clinics.

The Kingdom's commitment to raising the quality of health service provided to its citizens is reflected in the fact that while the number of hospitals and primary health care clinics and centers rose five-fold over the 25 years from 1970 and 1995, the number of physicians employed at these facilities rose 26-fold. Of the around 34,000 doctors in both government and private health sectors, 20 percent are Saudi.

The qualitative improvement in Saudi health care is also evident by the number of specialized hospitals now operating in the Kingdom. In the 1980s, most hospitals offered only general services. Now, there are hospitals specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, in treating respiratory ailments, in psychiatric care, in eye diseases, and in contagious diseases. There are also a number of convalescent facilities.

Riyadh has become the Kingdom's capital for specialized health care, a trend that began when in 1975 the King Faisal Specialist Hospital became the first facility in the country to offer specialized treatment. Today, the facility is a leading hospital in the Middle East and a premier research center in the region.

The King Fahd Medical City is one of the largest medical facilities in the Middle East. The complex, completed in the 1990s, consists of five hospitals, including general, children's and psychiatric centers, with a total of nearly 1,500 beds. It also has extensive outpatient facilities and provides housing for around 3,000 employees.

The Kingdom has one of the world's largest and best-equipped eye hospitals, the King Khalid Eye Specialist Hospital, established in Riyadh in 1983. In 1988, the hospital established a program to train ophthalmologists, which Saudis have been graduating from since the 1990s.

In 1993, a third Saudi hospital specializing in open-heart surgery and other sophisticated heart operations was opened in Makkah. Built with funds donated by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, the Al-Noor Specialist Hospital's Heart Center was established with the technical support of the King Fahd Hospital Heart Center (KFHHC) in Jeddah, the Saudi Heart Foundation and the Ministry of Health. The specialists at the new facilities were trained at the KFHHC and the King Abdulaziz College of Medicine. Since its establishment in 1982, the KFHHC has performed thousands of open-heart surgeries. Teams of surgeons from the center also travel to less developed nations to carry out such operations, and help set up heart centers.

In addition to major hospitals, medical colleges and universities also conduct basic health research. Many institutes have made striking advances with potential benefits that reach well beyond Saudi Arabia. The research center at King Saud University's School of Pharmacology, for example, has developed new drugs, notably one for diabetes. The government subsidizes medications, which are readily available to patients and cost less than in most countries. It also encourages Saudi companies to manufacture pharmaceuticals and supports their efforts.

King Abdulaziz University is also a center for advanced medical research, and King Saud University's College of Science is using radioactive biotopes to determine the effect of antibiotics on bodily functions. At King Khalid University Hospital, scientists are testing whether indigenous medicinal plants could help in treating cancer.

These and other Saudi universities play a vital role in training the physicians, nurses and staff needed to run the country's vast health care system. Dentistry is another growing field in the Kingdom. In the 1990s, over 1,000 dental clinics and 11 specialized dental hospitals were set up, with 150 mobile dental clinics were used to service residents of remote villages.

An important role in health care is played by the Saudi Red Crescent Society, which is a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It provides first aid and emergency medical services, operating about 150 medical centers and branches throughout the country, in addition to four mobile clinics and more than 500 ambulances and medical evacuation helicopters. It also plays a special part in caring for the millions of Muslim pilgrims during the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to the holy sites in Makkah and Madinah. Each year, the society sets up for the pilgrims hundreds of health care stations staffed by thousands of doctors, nurses, medical technicians and other support personnel.

The Saudi Red Crescent Society also responds to natural and man-made disasters abroad, with personnel and volunteers sent to various parts of the world. Early in the 1990s, the society operated field hospitals and food distribution centers in Somalia where famine victims received medical care and food donated by Saudi Arabia. Later that decade, the Society was fully involved in relief operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Kosovo, and in Chechnya, supplying tents and clothing as well as medicine and foodstuffs. In the aftermath of the war on Iraq in 2003, the Saudi Red Crescent Society was prominent in relief efforts for the Iraqi people, including the setting up of a field hospital in Baghdad.

The treatment and rehabilitation of the mentally and physically handicapped is a priority of the Saudi health and social services system. Over the past two decades, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs have established a network of rehabilitation centers for the handicapped. These facilities fall into two categories. The first offers services for medical, physical and mental treatment and rehabilitation of patients and is operated or supervised by the Ministry of Health. The second group of centers focuses on the social rehabilitation of the handicapped and is run by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

Various charitable and benevolent societies are also active in Saudi Arabia with the support of government agencies. The centers run by the Saudi Benevolent Association for Handicapped Children and the Prince Salman Center for Senior Citizens are but two of the many such institutions throughout the country.