Dr. Saleh bin Ibrahim Al-Sehaibany, MOH assistant Deputy Minister for health economics, has revealed that there are great opportunities for investment in the governmental health sector. Besides, there are major challenges hindering such opportunities, especially, in health economics, pointing out that the charges of establishing health facilities have witnessed a great increase recently.
Dr. Al-Sehaibany affirmed in his word, delivered before the meeting held yesterday (Monday) in Riyadh with human resource directors of health affairs directorates in Kingdom's regions, that it's so important to make use of human resources in supporting and financing such sectors which will definitely contribute to improvement of health services rendered to citizens, adding that human resources have became a part of many departments in hospitals such as radiation and operations rooms.
Dr. Al-Sehaibany said, “The concept of health economics cannot be confined only to human resources and investment, but it may cover more areas. The department of health economics is a new department and the Ministry of Health has become aware of the importance of this new department, consequently, the MOH is about to establish two new departments, namely, Health Investment Department and Health Industry Department,” adding that, the MOH imports a wide range of medicines and medical devices at great costs, given that, such medical devices may be rented instead of purchasing them in some cases.
Dr. Al-Sehaibany affirmed that the Ministry of Health needs also to establish more medical projects and sign more strategic partnerships with some global companies specialized in health and medical field, adding that health economics department is considered a future nucleus for advancing in the field of health investment and self-finance. He also mentioned that such a department will help the Kingdom to depend partially on the governmental support, and to decrease costs in a manner that doesn't affect performance or services rendered to citizens and beneficiaries.
It's worth mentioning that the meeting aims to introduce the department and its strategies for directors, and discuss all the aspects related to investment and diversification of income sources, insurance and collection of funds.