Health Ministries

The Ministry of Health and Prevention is the ministry of the Government of United Arab Emirates which is responsible for the implementation of health care policy in all areas of technical, material, and coordination with the Ministries of State, and cooperation with the private sector in health locally and internationally. The ministry is led by the minister, Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al Oweis.

Bahrain has a universal health care system, dating back to 1960. Government-provided health care is free to Bahraini citizens and subsidized for non-Bahrainis. Healthcare expenditure accounted for 4.5% of Bahrain’s GDP, according to the World Health Organization. Bahraini physicians and nurses form a majority of the country’s workforce in the health sector, unlike neighboring Gulf states.

The first hospital in Bahrain was the American Mission Hospital, which opened in 1893 as a dispensary. The first public hospital, and also tertiary hospital, to open in Bahrain was the Salmaniya Medical Complex, in the Salmaniya district of Manama, in 1957. The Psychiatric Hospital is the only such public hospital in the country. Private hospitals are also present throughout the country, such as the International Hospital of Bahrain.

Since the foundation of the modern state of Saudi Arabia by King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al-Saud, the public health and disease control were among the government’s top priorities. In addition to keeping pace with the latest international healthcare developments, the King focused on building a strong infrastructure for a comprehensive health sector that would serve all regions of the Kingdom.

The Ministry’s origins can be traced by to 1925, when King Abdulaziz established the first public health department in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The department was founded with the aim to increase the quality and access to healthcare in the Kingdom. In the same year, Public Health and Ambulance (PHA) was established to meet the needs of the Kingdom’s health and environmental sectors.

In the first few decades of its existence, the PHA focused on the development of hospitals and other healthcare infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Additional regulations were also added in the Kingdom, with healthcare centers enforcing regulations to provide necessary standards for practicing medicine and pharmacology. A Public Health Council (PHC) was also established to address the growing need for healthcare services, including care for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims. The PHC was the highest-level supervisory board, overseeing all aspects of the country’s healthcare services, including all hospitals and healthcare centers nationwide The council’s main goals included the development of a skilled healthcare workforce, as well as the control of the diseases and epidemics which were prevalent during that time.

With the increase in the population of the Kingdom and to enhance the life style of its citizens, it became necessary to create a large-scale specialized organization to carry out the Kingdom’s health affairs. Therefore, various healthcare institutions were merged to become a ministerial body and thus the Ministry of Health was established 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. Dr. Tawfig AlRabiah is the current health minister, serving the ministry since 2016.

Providing healthcare has been among the priorities of the Omani government since his Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, may Allah rest his soul, started ruling the Sultanate of Oman in the seventies. The Sultanate is continuing its efforts towards promoting sustainable healthcare for its citizens under the leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tariq – may Allah protect him.

The Ministry of Health plays a vital role in maintaining and promoting the health of citizens through delivering free health services, addressing disease challenges, continuing to update changes and developments, and ensuring optimal use of resources. These roles evolve from the Ministry’s vision statement of “a society that enjoys quality care and sustainable health,” and are based on the mission statement “Achieve the health status of society to the best extent by providing high-quality health care at all levels.”

In order to strengthen the process of development in the Sultanate and setting the aspirations of the future vision (Oman 2040) through the restructuring of the state’s administrative apparatus, the organizational structure of the Ministry of Health declared by Royal Decree No. (80/2020) consists of His Excellency the Minister, His Excellency the Undersecretary for Health Affairs and Her Excellency the Undersecretary for Administrative, Finance and Planning Affairs, and with each division having a number of directorates and departments that integrate to achieving the goals aimed at creating a healthy environment that the Ministry of Health aims to achieve.

Many successes have been achieved in the country, especially in the field of health, which were praised by many regional and international organizations. These achievements were supported by adopting Five-Year Development Plans that are aligned with the national vision of the sultanate aiming for comprehensive development all over the Sultanate since 1976. The tenth five-year plan for health development 2021-2025 comes as the first implementation plan for the health priority in “Oman Vision 2040”, in order to continue the series of successes and raise the aspirations of citizens and residents to new levels. The vision sets the following five strategic goals for the health priority that the health sector strives to achieve over the next twenty years:

• A healthy society free of health risks and hazards, where “health is the responsibility of all” .
• A decentralized healthcare system operating with quality, transparency, fairness, and accountability.
• Diversified and sustainable funding sources for the healthcare system.
• Qualified national talents and capabilities leading scientific research and innovation in healthcare.
• Technology-driven medical systems and services, and high-quality preventive and clinical healthcare across all levels

The Tenth Five-Year Plan for Health Development was also based on the Health Vision 2050, global and regional agreements, and the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations.

The Ministry of Public Health in Qatar is the sole authority responsible for regulating healthcare services in the country, and it works to ensure the provision of the highest level of healthcare, provide preventive and curative health services of international reputation and global appreciation, and to spread and develop health awareness. It is also responsible for regulating the private sector’s establishment of health facilities and overseeing them, and supervising the health insurance system, hospitals and primary health care centers, and the practice of medical, allied, and pharmacy professions.
The Ministry aims to develop an integrated and comprehensive healthcare system, managed according to world-class standards, with accessible health services to the entire population in line with the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030 to ensure continuous care, develop frameworks to provide healthcare services to priority populations and introduce new tools and procedures to support patient care and transfer of knowledge among different healthcare systems.

The health care system in Kuwait began as a modern regulatory law in 1944, where Sheikh Ahmed al-Jaber Al-Sabah passed a law that included fourteen articles on the regulations of the Health Department of the Health Council, in addition to the powers of the Administrative Director of the Department and the powers of the Technical Director (Chief Medical Officer) of health at that time, and in 1939 opened the first government health clinic in Kuwait and later became for men and the construction of another clinic for women, while in 1944 it was the first clinic for women.

In 1944, Dr. Hikmat Al Khaja was assigned by the Department to take over the health of school students and public health in the markets and examine food traders and vendors, and in 1947 Dr. Riad Mukhtar Faraj was selected director of knowledge health who developed plans for the awareness and treatment of students and placed in each clinic school and this was the nucleus and launch of the first health schools in Kuwait, where the School Health Department was established in 1951.

The Ministry of Health and Housing in the Republic of Yemen is the ministry concerned with providing health care to citizens, formulating health policy and identifying appropriate methods for its implementation, strategic planning to manage, guide, and provide health services following the principle of decentralization in its various fields and levels, modernization of the health system following the foundations of decentralized regulation and support for the management of the health system in the provinces and directorates.