| SAUDI HEALTHCARE SECTOR ON A FIRM FOUNDATION |
The Saudi Arabian government has been investing heavily in the healthcare sector over the past few years, giving its citizens the confidence that the country’s healthcare infrastructure can handle the coronavirus crisis affecting the world.
Authorities have been able to mitigate the impact of the global pandemic and also take swift action in preventing and actively treating those affected by the crisis. Dr. Mohamed Al-Abd Al-Aali, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, the officials have also screened more than half a million people at the ports by 10 March 2020.
Indeed, Saudi Arabia has provided USD 10 million to the World Health Organization to take urgent measures to minimise the spread of the disease and to support countries with vulnerable health infrastructures.
Health and social development have been among the top three budget allocations in Saudi Arabia the past few years, underscoring the kingdom’s efforts to upgrade the services, scope and breadth of healthcare in the country.
This year, the government allocated 16.4% of the budget, or SAR167 billion, on healthcare and social development.
The government aims to use the allotment in areas such as introducing public-private participation healthcare models to achieve the Vision 2030 target of privatising 295 hospitals by 2030, 2,259 healthcare centres, 13,700 doctors, 20,000 additional hospital beds by 2030.
“Furthermore, the government seeks to improve the country’s healthcare sector by adopting digital information systems. To support this e-health strategy, the Ministry of Health has designed an e-health strategic framework with strategic business objectives,” according to a KPMG report.
“In addition, under the National Transformation Program, the government has set a target of increasing the proportion of patients that have a digital health record from 0% in 2016 to 70% by 2020.”
Indeed, some of the key Ministry of Health targets this year are:
- Raise private healthcare expenditure from 25% to 35% of total healthcare expenditure;
- Raise the number of licensed medical facilities from 40 to 100;
- Raise the number of internationally accredited hospitals;
- Double the number of primary healthcare visits per capita from two to four;
- Lower the percentage of smoking and obesity incidence by 2% and 1% from baseline, respectively;
- Double the percentage of patients who receive healthcare after critical care and long-term hospitalisation within four weeks from 25% to 50%;
- Focus on improving the quality of preventive and therapeutic healthcare services; and Increase focus on digital healthcare innovations.
CLOSING THE DEMAND GAP
Real estate consultancy Colliers believes Saudi Arabia’s demand for bed, doctors and nurses will need to grow at around 2.5% per annum until 2030 to meet demand in line with rising populations and aging demographics.
The government’s increasing standard of healthcare also has the desirable effect of longevity among Saudi nationals to around 79.4 for men and 81.3 for women by 2050.
“Demand growth rates will continue to accelerate as the over 60s population is expected to increase by three times between 2018 and 2035,” according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank. “This would result in demand for additional specialisations within the LTC (long-term care) sector due to the burden of chronic diseases, which leads to degenerative and debilitating illnesses in the geriatric segment.”
At the other end of the spectrum, demand for the youngest age group of zero to 19 is also set to rise 13.7 million by 2030 (from 10.5 million in 2018). Indeed, around 8 million babies will be born during the period, leading to higher demand for obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatrics.
Another key age group is 40 to 59 years.
“The total population within this age group is likely to increase from 8.4 million in 2018 to 12.3 million in 2030,” according to property consultants Colliers International. “In the near future, it is expected to be a sharp rise in healthcare demand, as almost 80% of a person’s healthcare requirements typically occur after the age of 40 to 50 years, especially in the case of KSA, due to an increase in lifestyle and other chronic diseases.”
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