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Privatization of Healthcare in Saudi Arabia: Opportunities and Challenges

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Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World

Abstract

Cost containment is likely the single most important influencer of health restructuring in all parts of the world. Regardless of the types of economy, all governments, including that of Saudi Arabia, are under increased pressure to build sustainable health models. Irrespective of the abundant oil based financial resources and a relatively small population size, the Government think-tank in the last 5 years slowly realized the need to develop an improved and more sustainable economic health model. Public–Private Partnerships (PPP) are the suggested face of privatization and were proposed in the early 1990s; PPPs which have legal sanctity over the transfer of function and ownership of any services to the private sector, were created with the aim of delivering goods including health services. This remodeling from the conservative regulator-pay or-deliver (all in one) model to the new model of care has huge potential but is constrained by many challenges. As a result, the Ministry of Health plans to develop more inclusive PPP sustainable models. This chapter reviews the various issues dealing with the benefits, lacunae, challenges of implementation of privatization in the healthcare sector as well as scope of growth for private players in the near future. A detailed description of these new private sector participation models of care is provided along with a discussion of the impact of the various components of privatization such as corporatization, clustering, purchase program, e-Health, and implementation of health services. This chapter will improve the understanding of not only the transactional aspects of privatization but also their execution, and the means by which different privatization arrangements can be incorporated as well as sustained within the existing healthcare system in Saudi Arabia. In the present communication we have highlighted the prominent benefits along with cost benefit analysis of the proposed PPP model over the existing one by presenting a case study of the obesity management model as an example, which will help to improve the understanding of the PPP footprints across the Middle East.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Saudi Electronic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Abdulwahab Alkhamis & Shaima S. Ali Miraj

  2. Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Khalid I. Al Qumaizi

  3. Department of Public Administration/Health Administration, College of Business Administration, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Khalid Alaiban

Authors
  1. Abdulwahab Alkhamis
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  2. Shaima S. Ali Miraj
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  3. Khalid I. Al Qumaizi
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  4. Khalid Alaiban
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abdulwahab Alkhamis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Pharmacology Therapeutics, University of British Colombia Dept. Pharmacology Therapeutics, VANCOUVER, BC, Canada

    Ismail Laher

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ziad El-Khatib

  2. World Health Programme, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), Rouyn-Noranda, QC, Canada

    Ziad El-Khatib

  3. health care management, King Saud University, RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

    Asmaa Alyaemni

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Alkhamis, A., Ali Miraj, S.S., Al Qumaizi, K.I., Alaiban, K. (2020). Privatization of Healthcare in Saudi Arabia: Opportunities and Challenges. In: Laher, I. (eds) Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74365-3_177-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74365-3_177-1

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