Ministry of Health

History

The Ministry of Health (MOH) traces its origins to 1925, with the establishment of regional health departments, beginning in Mecca. As Saudi Arabia’s economy grew, the first national Ministry of Health was formed in 1950 under Minister Abdullah bin Faisal Al Saud. Over the decades, the MOH expanded healthcare infrastructure, building hospitals and clinics nationwide. Today, under Minister Fahad Al-Jalajel, the MOH continues to advance Saudi Arabia’s health sector, aligning with Vision 2030 to create a vibrant, healthy society in alignment with the nation's Quality of Life Program and social development aims.

Foundation of Ministry (1925-1960)

In 1925, Saudi Arabia's first public health department was established in Mecca. The department was founded with the aim to increase the quality and access to healthcare in the country. In the first few decades of its existence, the Ministry focused on the development of hospitals and other healthcare infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Additional regulation was also added with healthcare centers enforcing regulations to provide necessary standards for practicing medicine and pharmacology. A public health council was also established to address the growing need for healthcare services, and it was the highest-level supervisory board, overseeing all aspects of the country's healthcare services.

The various healthcare institutions were merged to become a ministerial body in 1950. Abdullah bin Faisal Al Saud was the first health minister and served in the position for three years with his main role to set up the newly formed ministry. He served in the position for three years. He was replaced by Rashad Pharaon who was the personal doctor of King Abdulaziz, and he served in the post between 1954 and 1960.

Growing healthcare importance (1960s-1990s)

Following World War II, Saudi Arabia's oil production increased dramatically and many remote areas began to see an influx of workers to work in the oil industry. This meant that developing regions in the Kingdom required more healthcare infrastructure, which was subsequently provided. The initial management of this expansion in the early 1960s fell under the responsibility of Hassan bin Yousef Nassief and Hamid bin Mohammad Al Harsani, the third and fourth ministers of health. They each served a year in the position, from 1960 to 1962.

Later in the 1960s, the growth turned the country into a regional and global power. Following a number of conflicts in the 1960s and 1970s, Saudi Arabia's importance in the region grew. This continued rise in wealth meant that huge investments were made by the country's leaders, in order to improve the standard of living across the country. Health in the rural areas of the country became more accessible during this period, as communities that were once considered rural, were more integrated into society with the expansion of oil fields. This expansion required health facilities, which saw the first major rural expansion of medical care in the country's history. This was overseen by Dr. Yousef Bin Yaqoub Al Hairi and Shaikh Hassan bin Abdullah Aal Alshaikh, both of whom served as ministers of health in the mid to late 1960s.

Cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah saw their healthcare infrastructure grow substantially. The expansion of the city infrastructure was essential, with urbanization increasing in the country, with large corporations also moving their offices to the country with the growing economy. This early development was overseen by Dr. Jamil bin Ibrahim Al Hujailan and Dr. Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Khuwaiter, who served as ministers in the early 1970s. The economic expansion did not only lead to the development of hospitals for citizens but also care for the Kingdom's military. In the 1970s saw the construction of Riyadh Military Hospital and many other major infrastructure projects that led to more accessible healthcare. A number of years later saw the creation of King Khalid University Hospital was also completed. Dr. Hussain bin Abdulrazzaq Al Jazairy played a major role in the Kingdom's improved hospitals during his eight-year tenure between 1975 and 1983.

Recent history (1990s-present)

Towards the end of the 1990s, Dr. Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Hujailan retired as minister of health after twelve years. He remains the longest-serving minister of health in Saudi Arabia's history. Al Hujailan's role as health minister was complex due to the turbulent times. In the wake of the invasion of Kuwait and the Battle of Khafji, caring for wounded soldiers became an additional burden.

In the early 21st century, two ministers played a major part in the development of new high-tech hospitals and infrastructure in many of the cities in the Kingdom. Of them, Hamad bin Abdullah Al Manie served between 2003 and 2009, with Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabiah serving for five years until 2014. Following Al Rabiah's departure, a number of well-known public officials served as ministers of health between 2014 and 2016. In total, five Ministers were appointed during this period, including Adel Fakeih, Dr. Mohammed Al-Hayaza and Khalid Al Falih.

A new minister of health was announced in early 2016 as Dr. Tawfig Al Rabiah.

The Kingdom has attempted to link lifestyle with health through a number of initiatives. This focused on attempting to solve the country's obesity issues. Taxes on unhealthy food products were introduced, as well as nutritional labeling. As part of the focus on tackling obesity, the health minister announced that the Kingdom would allow women to use women-only gyms. Local media had reported that women in the Kingdom often struggled to exercise enough during a typical day, which was leading to health issues in some women.

Until 2018, healthcare in schools fell under the stewardship of the Ministry of Education. It was proposed by the Ministry of Health that this should change and should be managed by the Ministry of Health. In 2018, the responsibility was officially transferred between the two ministries. Additionally, periodic health checks were introduced for Saudi pupils at specific grade intervals. In April 2018, The World Health Organization presented AlRabiah with certifications for two new health cities in the country. The cities were Diriyah and Jalajil. Awards were also later given for the cities of Unayzah and Riyadh Al Khabra.. Up to April 2026, a total of 16 Saudi cities have been accredited by the World Health Organization as “Healthy Cities.”

Services and strategies

National insurance agency

Under the leadership of Tawfig AlRabiah, it was announced that the Kingdom would be creating a national health insurance agency, which would be managed by the Ministry of Health. It was announced that implementation would begin in 2018 and would be regulated centrally, but medical services would be independently provided. The move meant that Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries in the Middle East to offer health insurance to its people.

Pilgrimage health

Saudi Arabia identified in the past decade that health concerns with pilgrims could cause severe problems to the country's infrastructure during the pilgrimage season. International Health Regulations were applied to pilgrims, in line with the World Health Organization following the discovery, which would give better medical protection to more than two million people annually. This protection is provided by 25 hospitals, 155 health centers and a workforce of 30,000 medical professionals in the country. As part of the same strategy, a new contingency and emergency planning were introduced by the Minister, with the creation of the Saudi Disaster Medical Assistance Team (S-DMAT). The newly formed relief team would be used during pilgrimage season, but could also be deployed to neighboring countries in times of crisis.

Apps

One major new service was the creation of eHealth Analytics, abbreviated to Seha. The platform allows Saudi citizens to connect with a physician via the Internet and remotely. The app 'Med Consult' was launched in collaboration with King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid (KSRelief) and the support of the World Health Organization. This app enables visual communication to provide medical consultations among health practitioners in Low to Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) with consultants all over the world.

Artificial intelligence

Since the mid-2010s, the Ministry has had an increased focus on artificial intelligence. As a medium to long-term aim, trails and developments demonstrated how Saudi Arabia could become a pioneering country in medical AI. With partnerships with the likes of Siemens and Babylon Health, it is believed that AI operations and other advanced forms of AI could be tested in the country within the next decade.

Saudi Center for Disease Prevention and Control

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has created and developed the Saudi Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Weqaya), often abbreviated to CDC. The announcement of a newly formed CDC came in 2013, which became the first centralized facility of its kind in the Kingdom. The main goals of the facility were to research and treat various health issues across the country, while also conducting experiments. It was believed at the time of its creation, the CDC would dramatically boost the country's health sector.

A new commission was formed in 2016 to aid the treatment of Hepatitis C in the country. The aims of the commission are to eradicate the disease from the domestic population in the Kingdom. This also coincided with the creation of a new Saudi-made medicine that would be used to treat the virus. Wider initiatives on the treatment of disease were also implemented, with flu vaccinations becoming a focus. Between 2016 and 2018, vaccinations in the country quadrupled. The vaccinations were made possible with the launch of rural medical care in the country. Mobile primary care became a new initiative under the Minister's guidance, which meant rural citizens in the Kingdom could access health-related services more easily. The care industry in Saudi Arabia recognized that more people required home visits as part of a wider initiative to help the elderly and those less mobile. The Minister increased the number of services that could be implemented during home visits. It was estimated that 250,000 home visits were conducted by the end of 2018.

Tobacco clinics

As part of a move toward healthier citizens of the Kingdom, the Minister announced that there would be an expansion in the number of clinics to treat tobacco addiction. In order to reduce the number of people taking up smoking, the Kingdom also created a number of initiatives to take a stricter view on smoking as a whole. This included a tax increase on the sale of cigarettes. The University of Massachusetts also became involved in the initiatives, signing a partnership with the Kingdom to assist in the research of the treatment of tobacco addiction.

In order to reduce the number of people taking up smoking, the Kingdom created a number of initiatives to take a stricter view on smoking, which saw a 97% increase in anti-smoking clinics from 254 to 504 clinics, in addition to 100 mobile units for universities and education directorates. Meanwhile, focusing on community consciousness, the MOH achieved a 336% increase in the proportion of breast cancer screenings and screened 61,000, while 3.75 million people were given flu vaccination.

The then Minister of Health Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah received a global award on behalf of the Kingdom for combatting smoking through social awareness, treatment, and application of regulations. The award was presented as part of the 72nd session of the World Health Assembly, held in Geneva in May 2019. After becoming one of the first nations to ratify the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005, it plans to reduce tobacco use from 12.7% in 2017, to 5% in 2030.

Youth health

Healthcare in schools until recently fell under the stewardship of the Ministry of Education. In 2018, the Council of Ministers transferred healthcare in schools to the Health Ministry. Following this, a thorough check was carried out into the processes at schools for children's health, and health checks for 339,825 pupils in 5,570 schools were implemented. In 2018, this was transferred across to the Health Ministry. Following this move, a thorough check was carried out into the processes at schools for children's health. It was decided that reform on health checks was required and subsequently implemented that all pupils in chosen grade intervals would have health checks.

As a wider move to improve health infrastructure in the Kingdom, the Minister opened a number of new Cardiac centers, both for operations and research. The new facilities totaled six by the end of 2018, with performance indicators suggesting heart operation success was up to 96%. Due to the Kingdom's growing population, the MOH launched the Newborn Screening Program, which includes hearing tests and heart examinations, covering up to 96% of the Kingdom's babies. Other highly specialized services are offered in parallel with the screening program.

Vision 2030

Healthcare and health infrastructure were a key performance indicators for Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, a program to increase standards across the Kingdom in a number of fields. Following its introduction in 2013, a number of major milestones were reached. The development of remote health meant that the 937 Call Center received a total of 3 million calls in 2018, this more than doubled from the 1.4 million the year prior.

As part of the ongoing efforts to transform the digital interaction patients have in the country, a new app 'Mawid' was introduced to centralize health bookings. 10 million bookings have been made since its introduction, with five million using the app last year. Seha was also a success, allowing patients to speak remotely to a doctor or medical professional. It is believed that 300,000 people used the app in 2018 alone.

Raising the levels of productivity, efficiency, and quality of performance in the provision of health services in hospitals, the Ministry is implementing the program «Health Performance - Ada'a» towards achieving the Saudi Vision 2030, and currently includes 98.8% of hospitals, where more than 40 indicators are used to measure performance in 7 service hubs, wherein positive results were achieved in reducing waiting periods in emergency and outpatient clinics.

Enhancing Traffic Safety is one of the Kingdom's goals in its 2030 vision. The Minister of Health is part of a ministerial committee overlooking the implementation of many initiatives and projects in all aspects of Traffic Safety dimensions, which focuses on enforcement, engineering, education, and emergency response. These efforts resulted in the reduction of fatalities by 33%, injuries by 21%, and motor vehicle accidents by 34% in the last two years. Fatalities per 100,000 had been reduced from 28.8 in 2016 to 17.7 in 2018. The Kingdom is aiming to be the best in class in road safety by 2030.

To strengthen the role of the private sector, the MOH has introduced electronic licensing services for medical facilities. Prior to the introduction of this license, the process used to take 120 days in many cases. The MOH has also enabled the sector to monitor itself through the self-assessment service, followed by inspections of health establishments to ensure that they are free of harmful health practices.

Alternative care

Healthcare services in Saudi Arabia are provided by several public and private agencies. However, the ministry is the major planner and provider of these services.

937 Call Center

In line with the Saudi Vision 2030, the Saudi Ministry of Health introduced the 937 Call Center, which uses a toll-free number to provide medical services. The Center provides high-quality and immediate emergency assistance to patients as it fulfills their medical needs and requirements.

The 937 number was an instant success in the Kingdom and by 2017 had reached a million annual medical calls. As the service grew, so did the quality of the medical feedback, with satisfaction ratings increasing 25% in less than one year. Once the call center passed one million annual calls, it continued to grow, processing 80,000 calls a week by the end of 2018.

The call center can also process and book appointments with a medical professional should it be required, which can be now done digitally since the introduction of a centralized booking system, known as Mawid. The system can also be used for referrals for the first time, so physicians can refer patients to a hospital for a specific reason using the system. The most notable thing about this is not the technology, but that it is provided free of charge to Saudi Arabian citizens and residents. When compared to US services, many similar offerings are privatized and operated by for-profit companies, such as WebMD.

Seha Virtual Hospital

In line with the Saudi Vision 2030, the Saudi Ministry of Health launched the first virtual hospital in the Kingdom. The Seha Virtual Hospital (SVH) aims to promote virtual healthcare, achieve innovation in the health sector, develop resources, and achieve sustainability in addition to achieving institutional excellence. SVH connects 224 hospitals and offers 44 specialized services across the Kingdom. Specialized services in the SVH include emergency and critical advice, specialized clinics, multidisciplinary committees, medical support services, and home care services. In early November 2023, the SVH won the Zimam Award for Digital Health after being recognized as the best business incubator for the Safe Environment Incubator Project (Sandbox) in the field of innovation in the Arab region for 2023. In October 2024, the SVH received the Guinness World Record as the Largest Virtual Hospital during the Global Health Exhibition 2024 in Riyadh.

The Innovation Center

The Innovation Center at the Ministry of Health (Saudi Arabia) is a national platform established under the Saudi Vision 2030 to foster a culture of innovation and creative problem-solving in the healthcare sector. The center supports the transformation of employee-driven ideas into scalable solutions through initiatives such as Innovate with an Idea, Pioneers Award, and Seha-thon. It plays a pivotal role in developing strategic partnerships with hospitals, universities, and technology accelerators to promote healthcare innovation. The center has also been recognized for piloting novel technologies, including virtual reality in vaccinations, and contributed to the national deployment of pioneering cardiac procedures.

Ada’a Health Center

Ada’a Health Center (Arabic: مركز أداء الصحة) is the national healthcare performance management center of the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) Ministry of Health (Saudi Arabia). It originated in 2016 as the Patient-Centered Performance (PCP) Program, the Ministry’s first initiative for healthcare performance measurement, introducing the first healthcare performance indicators across MOH facilities. As its role expanded, the program evolved into Ada’a Health, extending its scope to public, private, military, and other governmental healthcare sectors across Saudi Arabia. Aligned with Saudi Vision 2030 and the Health Sector Transformation Program, Ada’a Health develops and oversees national performance indicators, clinical audit programs, benchmarking systems, and the Healthcare Quality Index (HQI).. Its methodology integrates performance governance, clinical governance, data integrity, benchmarking, and continuous quality improvement. Key achievements include establishing the Kingdom’s first unified healthcare performance indicator framework, developing the Healthcare Quality Index (HQI), launching the Ada’a Health Performance Award. obtaining CQI-IRCA accreditation, publishing national healthcare performance reports, and receiving international recognition for advancing healthcare performance excellence and organizational improvement.

Ministry's Response to COVID-19

By the end of December 2019, China witnessed a widespread of acute pneumonia cases, later known as Coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19. Thereafter, countries around the world started preparedness and response efforts, in different ways at different times, in an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries that started precautionary and preventive measures and anticipated the danger of this disease, which turned into a global pandemic within a short period of time. The Kingdom did not limit its efforts to curb COVID-19 to the local level, as it also expanded them to the international level, given its political, strategic, and economic roles. These are evident with the Kingdom's leadership role during its presidency of the G20 for the year 2020. Moreover, several international bodies and media channels praised the Kingdom's efforts at the national and international levels to strengthen response, develop a treatment, and ensure the availability of preventive equipment, as well as its $500 million contributions to support global efforts to curb the pandemic. This support is part of the Kingdom's commitment to fund international organizations according to the agreements announced at the G20 extraordinary summit initiated by the Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia participated in a pledging conference hosted by the European Commission and associated with efforts to support the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT Accelerator). Saudi Arabia was among the participants in the global initiative, which sought to promote equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

The ACT Accelerator brought together governments, international organizations, and other stakeholders to coordinate efforts related to the development, production, and distribution of COVID-19 diagnostic tools, treatments, and vaccines.

Owing to the experience that the Kingdom accumulated over the years in risk management and assessment to secure national and global health, ensure the security and the safety of Hajj and Umrah pilgrims every year, and develop a highly efficient health system, and to its previous experience in curbing the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV); the Kingdom took several early, evidence-based precautionary measures at the highest levels.