Saudi Arabia has made significant improvements in its healthcare over the last six decades. It has provided free healthcare services to its citizens and other immigrants with legal documents (Young et al., 2021). This has given rise to significant improvement in accessing healthcare in the country, mainly benefiting the poor population. Additionally, it has resulted in higher life expectancy than in first-world countries such as the USA.
Saudi’s access to medicines and technologies can help make healthcare affordable and yield better health outcomes. According to the Saudi government, all drugs from government health facilities are given for free, with social and public health insurance providing medication for some special conditions (Young et al., 2021). The government-subsidized drugs to refine health outcomes for the general population. This reform will help improve the health outcomes of the vulnerable population of Saudi by ensuring that they can afford and access all the medication they need for free or at subsidized prices.
The leadership and governance of the Saudi government are centralized, making decision-making an easy and fast process in the country. The head is the king, and regional health authorities are in charge of making health laws and sending them to the king and crown prince to approve (Rahman, 2020). This is not the case in some advanced countries like the US, where policies must be debated and passed through a decentralized system. For instance, when it decided to reduce infant mortality in the 1960s, it immediately implemented free vaccinations and public awareness campaigns (Young et al., 2021). Consequently, Saudi can use its centralized fast system to respond to the health needs of the vulnerable population.
One of the main reforms to ensure that healthcare reaches all citizens, including the vulnerable, is ensuring that primary healthcare providers are available in rural areas. According to Young et al. (2021), there are an inadequate number of primary care physicians in the rural and small cities making the vulnerable population, such as the aged, lack access to quality healthcare. There are approximately 55 nurses per 10,000 people in rural towns, which is inadequate (Young et al., 2021). Therefore, the Saudi government should increase its healthcare workforce, especially in rural cities, to ensure that the aged more vulnerable have access to healthcare.
Saudi’s use of health information systems in its service delivery and data processing can improve healthcare outcomes for vulnerable populations. Since the introduction of Health information systems in 2011, only 39% of government hospitals have used the health information system (Young et al., 2021). Saudi’s government should increase health information systems to help the vulnerable population by lowering the cost of medication through a lessened stay in the hospital, eliminating medicating errors, and accurate administration information.
For Saudi Arabia to support the obligation to care and obligation to control costs, it should ensure that it adopts health information technology. This method helps to reduce costs by reducing the number of medication errors and making systems more efficient (Young et al., 2021). Saudi can also privatize healthcare services and give the government the role of policing. Privatization will ensure equal access to quality healthcare in the rural areas and the city (Rahman, 2020). The Saudi government should subsidize healthcare services and all drugs to ensure that the marginalized population can afford the services. It can do this by subsidizing medical insurance and using the patient price subsidy. The subsidies should be based on the disease to ensure that costly conditions get significant contributions compared to the others. When well implemented, these three steps can address the obligation to care and the obligation to control costs for the Saudi government.
Despite being a desert country, Saudi Arabia has revolutionized its healthcare systems. Saudi has improved its healthcare by ensuring access to medicines to all its citizens and its effective centralized leadership. However, to ensure that it reaches the vulnerable populations, Saudi will have to provide healthcare in rural areas and use health information systems. Additionally, health information technology and privatization will ensure the government meets its obligation to care and obligation to control costs.
References
Rahman, R. (2020). The privatization of the health care system in Saudi Arabia.Health Services Insights, 13, 117863292093449. Web.
Young, Y., Alharthy, A., & Hosler, A. S. (2021). Transformation of Saudi Arabia’s health system and its impact on population health: What can the USA learn?Saudi Journal of Health Systems Research, 1–10. Web.