Introduction
Since institutions such as the ministry of health (MOH) were established, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has followed a welfare policy and ensured universal access to care by citizens. Such strategies are evident in the improved health of the population compared to other states, such as those in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) (Rahman & Qattan, 2021). The Saudi government can provide free health care services to people without requiring supplementary financial aid due to revenues generated from the oil business. In the past decades, the government has successfully implemented development projects to benefit people and the overall economy. However, there are challenges encountered to sustain health services delivery to the country’s population. Adverse changes occur due to rising costs, reduced revenue growth, changes in demographic structure, and increased life expectancy. The focus of the paper is to address the impacts of vision 2030 on Saudi Arabia’s healthcare services regulations.
Vision 2030 In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
An anticipated course of change in the health care system of Saudi Arabia is through a vision plan. In 2016 the Kingdom presented vision 2030 as a comprehensive plan to support the success of the country’s economy (Alomi et a., 2018). The government wants citizens to live longer and expect an increase in life span from 74 to 80. Moreover, there is an aim to optimize the utilization of healthcare facilities while enhancing the quality of services such as therapeutic and preventive care. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to ensure there is the promotion of preventive care to lower the spread of infectious illnesses and encourage people to seek primary care. For that to happen, professionals such as doctors need to receive adequate training. The public healthcare sector is aimed to focus on planning, regulatory or supervisory roles while public entities must provide quality services that compete with the private sectors.
Establishing and empowering healthcare systems in Saudi Arabia requires key players to embark on strategic efforts. The Vision 2030 agenda is a long and ambitious plan and reflects the complexity of the Kingdom’s current healthcare obstacles. For example, the country’s expenditure on health is increasing steadily while oil revenues drop. Hospital beds and quotas are ranked to be below the global levels after a long time of investment. Furthermore, the nation’s public healthcare and private system operate separately with minimal efficiencies. The vision plan is anticipated to counter such and more challenges within the healthcare system. Typically, the target of vision2030 is to have significant participation of the private health sector within the country’s economy. Privatization is also aimed as a definite move with objectives stated in the national transformational program (NTP) of expanding expenditure.
Themes of the Vision 2030
The Vision 2030 plan is built around three central themes: a vibrant society, a successful economy, and an ambitious nation. The historic Vision was enacted by the country’s council of economic and development affairs. The strategy includes a number of targets for the nation’s long-term success, creating wealth funds and opening up private investment. To achieve the goal of a vibrant society, the Kingdom must focus on people and the Islamic religion. Such changes will occur through commitments of including visitors by doubling heritage sites and promoting of cultural opportunities.
Regarding economic growth, the country will achieve this by diversifying the economy while creating jobs for its people. The government must be committed to areas including education, entrepreneurship, and innovation. A diversification approach ill entails the privatization of state-owned resources (Rahman & Al-Borie, 2020). On the other hand, to have an ambitious nation, Saudi Arabia must focus on accountability, effusiveness, and transparency in leadership. Sustainability of success is obtained with key foundations, and the Kingdom has to establish a zero-tolerance of all forms of corruption, improve governance standards and bolster non-profit sectors by increasing efficiency. Thus, vision 2o3o is a hallmark for attaining the state’s economic and health aspirations.
The need for the Vision 2030 Plan
To Understand why the Vison 2030 is critical in impacting healthcare regulations of Saudi Arabia kingdom, it is paramount to consider the challenges to be resolved by the comprehensive plan. Over the coming decades, the healthcare system of Saudi Arabia needs to address the needs of a rising population. In 2018, the population was expected to grow from 35 and reach about 39 million by 2030 (Ministry of Health, n.d). With that, it means the number of elderly individuals could increase from 1.9 million to 4.6 million in mid-2030 (Ministry of Health, n.d). The country receives many oversee visitors, especially during the major religious festivals. An increase in population in the country implicates significant pressures on healthcare services.
The second challenge to counter is the rate of unavoidable injuries and non-communicable illnesses. Although Saudi Arabia has made significant progress in improving people’s health in the past years, there remain issues of diseases to address in the area of child and maternal services. Targets set by the vision 2030 are to attain a life expectancy of 80 years, but this has to be achievable through a considerable scope of reducing available death rates (Ministry of Health, n.d). In elderly persons, the area of focus involves addressing chronic diseases such as stroke, heart problems, Mellitus, and respiratory or mental health complications. Moreover, road accidents and congenital diseases are common and must be reduced to attain Vision. The government of Saudi Arabia needs to strengthen prevention strategies for non-communicable diseases and injuries to lower avoidable death rates. On the contrary, when the Kingdom’s government emulates policy initiatives, health and healthcare implications are not always held strong. Furthermore, it has seemed difficult for the ministry of health to design inter-ministry dialogues for resolving pressing issues.
Thirdly, primary care appears inconsistent and inadequate in the Kingdom. The problem is evident in how resources are distributed in secondary or tertiary hospitals across the country. Care services such as rehabilitation facilities or long-0trem care are extended with inadequate capacity, and the issue is compounded by low productivity (Ministry of Health, n.d). Moreover, the nation has significant gaps in service qualities, thus care availed to patients is not optimal. Healthcare disparities are evident due to a lack of consistent and effective treatment interventions.
Another obstacle experienced in the country is the lack of sufficient capacity and capabilities in the healthcare workforce. Most care services in the Kingdom lack robust and consistent integration of technologies and digital tools to manage resources or activities and professional development support. Without a continuous learning cycle, the creation of knowledge is less encouraged (Ministry of Health, n.d). Furthermore, the country’s health care system has to support public expenditure and economic diversification. From these barriers, the country is compelled to encourage actions within and beyond ministries, introduce a measure of population needs, create a culture of stewardship and facilitate revenue growth.
Impacts of Saudi Arabia Vision 2030
The Kingdom’s Vision is set out for future economic diversification, promoting private sector investment, and increasing jobs. Under the NTP of 2020, the vision 2030 implementation plan’s primary influence is to increase the privatization of healthcare sectors (Rahman & Al-Borie, 2020). Public health care in the Kingdom receives funding from the oil revenues generated by the government. On the other hand, the private sector is financed by a combination of employees’ insurance and out-of-pocket payment systems. The Saudi government offers financial aid, including tax credits and foreign investment ownership in the health sector. In some states, tax credits and other benefits are offered as incentives to private investors. Globally, the world health organization (WHO) has emphasized privatization as a key way to improve health care services to countries’ populations (AL-Dossary, 2018). The government has drafted a privatization regulation that is aimed to boost non-governmental health sectors. Through this approach, it is expected that the Kingdom’s economy, foreign entrepreneurs, and care providers will benefit from a market-driven healthcare system (Rahman, 2020). Private players will venture largely into the Middle East market while more business people take the opportunity to invest.
Saudi Arabia has endeavored to integrate a better network of health services, including infrastructure improvements, recruitment of competent employees, and delivering free services. By reflecting on the adoption process of a similar plan in the past, the country went through a fiscal crisis and moved to deregulations. Currently, factors that have prompted privatization include an unstable economy, Saudi Vision, and leadership (Rahman, 2020). Considering the latter, the Kingdom’s government was curious about visionary policies in the neighboring nations for economic growth and took a look at the pathway for change. In most GCC countries, there are prepared visionary plans; for instance, Oman already had a vision of 2020 and was focusing on a vision of 2040 (Mitchell & Alfuraih, 2018; AL-Dossary, 2018). Other countries such as Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain had a vision of 2030 for sustainable development. In reference to that, experts advocated that Saudi Arabia needs to follow a similar path to diversity the economy, industrialize and improve knowledge (Rahman & Al-Borie, 2020).
Therefore, vision 2030 conveys the role of the private sector as the engine for social and economic transformation.
The vision plan also influences fostering private investment in sections that the government previously funded. Corporatization is cited as a major impact of the vision 2030 for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Through this approach, the country’s ministry of health will reduce its role to regulate or supervise. Clinical and hospitals will shift into a network of public entities that compete against private organizations. While the intervention might be conceptual, it is deemed as a seismic shift in philosophy.
Vision 2030 impacts health services regulations by creating opportunities for foreign investors in key areas such as healthcare education, medical insurance, training, and professional development. Currently, medical insurance is compulsory for Saudi nationals and dependents. Individuals working in the public sector enjoy free coverage in government care facilities or public hospitals. Amid partnership and privatization, it is expected that medical insurance providers will increase and develop products that serve the needs of workers.
Technology is integral in healthcare, especially in supporting a vision plan. Under compressive vision 2030, the ministry of health aims to have a large number of populations unified with digital records systems. Consequently, information technology will boost the performance and output of care providers while enabling quality services to be produced. New software systems will be invented to help in treatment or addressing medical issues such as diagnostics procedures. Currently, the country is witnessing an increased interest in telemedicine, allowing caregivers to provide services in the Kingdom under the supervision of registered physicians.
Health education and improved training facilities are a fundamental impact the country will experience due to changes in the health services regulation caused by the Vison 2030 plan. Typically, the NTP holds a great deal of emphasis on training and educational programs for better services (Rahman & Qattan, 2021). With vision goals in place, there are recognized interest for qualified Saudi healthcare workers or support staff as health needs increase. Education and training programs will be catered for internationally and domestically with a link to private-public partnerships.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia depends on imports for pharmaceutical products, and there is a high chance that these medical resources will be produced locally to achieve an adequate supply of medicines. Foreign companies are being encouraged to set plants in the country through a public-private partnership approach as this will not only ensure the supply of drugs but also create employment (Al-Hanawi & Qattan, 2019). The ministry of health has been forced to support local pharmaceutical manufacturers through a multinational partnership. With that, it can be anticipated that the effect of Vision 2030 is far-reaching, and when attained, it will yield many benefits to the economy of Saudi Arabia.
Vision 2030 and Nursing Policies
The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 can be linked to nursing transformation, as the plan becomes a roadmap for nursing strategies. Across the globe, nurses are known to make important contributions to health initiatives such as mental or community health, universal coverage, emergency preparedness, patient safety, and provision of comprehensive care. Without the continued effort from nurses, a national health agenda cannot be easily obtained. Vision 2030 empowers nurses to optimize their practice and promote effectiveness in the quality of care provided.
Saudi Arabia has entered a new era of development by adopting a vision, and this means significant changes for nurses. The 2030 program contains a series of nursing, education, trade, science, communication, and technology changes (Alsufyani et al., 2020). The central goal of the Vision is to improve healthcare delivery and enhance community status. Nurses make a significant contribution to the healthcare sector as caregivers. In that way, with the Vision’s strategies in progress, it can be expected that the demand for nurses will double as the population grows. To meet the need for the labor force in the healthcare sector, there is an implication in the education sector where many nurses must graduate to serve the rising patient capacity.
On the contrary, Saudi Arabia faces a staffing shortage and social and cultural challenges that could hamper workforce capabilities in the healthcare system. To undertake these obstacles, the success of delivering the Vision 2030 plan on whether the country’s government is vigilant, sophisticated, and less centralized (Alsufyani et al., 2020). Moreover, nursing staffs are likely to be impacted through empowerment and changes that may unfold to meet future health targets.
In summary, Saudi Arabia is undergoing rapid changes to realize its economic potential under the Vision 2030 comprehensive plan. From the research, the Vision has resulted in significant impacts on the healthcare regulations, including allowing privatizations and partnerships with the private sectors. Such efforts aim to shift the government’s role of providing healthcare services to sectors that focus on monitoring and regulating. Private entities are encouraged to make investments both locally and internationally to promote growth that balances health disparities. Currently, Saudi Arabia is liberalizing regulations to promote participation in healthcare sectors, and services from medical centers or hospitals can be expected to accelerate.
References
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