PHSSR Saudi Arabia 2025

27 Sustainability and Resilience in the Saudi Arabian Health System The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience •The health information system is still in the developmental phase, which adds to the complexity of healthcare governance. The absence of a well-rounded information technology framework hampers e fficient data management, a critical component for effective healthcare governance and decision making. •There is a limited level of patient participation in the healthcare decision-making process. This deficiency in patient engagement can negatively impact both patient satisfaction and the overall effectiveness of the healthcare services. •The healthcare system grapples with regulatory issues. The urgent need for a more stringent regulatory mechanism to ensure quality, safety, and accountability within the system is of paramount importance to improve healthcare governance in Saudi Arabia. 1.2 Governance for health system resilience Given its geopolitical and economic responsibilities, including Group of Twenty (G20) presidency in 2020, Saudi Arabia intensi fied its efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic beyond the local level. The country engaged in national and international efforts to improve its response and to guarantee the availability of preventative tools, including through its contribution of more than USD $500 million to support global efforts to control the pandemic. According to the 2021 –2022 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Roomi MA et al., 2022), Saudi Arabia ranked first worldwide in the response of entrepreneurs and governments to the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic affected almost every sector in Saudi Arabia. To supplement early government efforts to fight the pandemic, the Saudi Data and Arti ficial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) launched the Tawakkalna application (the name refers to the Islamic concept of reliance on God) to electronically and initially manage curfew permits for government and private sector employees and individuals. The application underwent numerous developmental phases to adapt to the evolving pandemic (see Case Study 1) and won the 2022 United Nations Public Service Award for institutional resilience and innovative responses to the Covid-19 pandemic (United Nations, 2022). The health system governance challenges faced during the pandemic fall into six categories (Table 4). Solutions to these challenges were readily available for implementation, re flecting the robust resilience of the Saudi health system. These solutions materialised due to the country’s long experience of population health risk assessment and mitigation, such as ensuring the security and the safety of mass gathering events, such as the annual Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. Moreover, prior experience containing Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) played a vital role in overcoming historical shortcomings in managing national health crises, by working in close collaboration with international health bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO), investing in strengthening the health infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and implementing strict infection control measures, including quarantine protocols, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in healthcare settings, and enhanced hygiene practices. These interventions, based on the principles of sound continuity planning, helped to ensure that the disruption caused to routines health services was minimised. The MoH, in collaboration with several other entities, released a number of publications and resources related to Covid-19, including scienti fic instructions, manuals and guidelines for healthcare providers. These were utilised at the national level to ensure homogeneity across practices and to avoid jeopardising health outcomes due to outdated practices. In addition, the MoH provided up- to-date information on various aspects of the pandemic, such as including statistics on cases, precautionary measures and the latest scienti fic findings. The aim of the publications was to ensure that healthcare providers and the general public had access to accurate and reliable information to effectively manage the crisis and protect the population. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a Command and Control Centre and a Covid-19 Follow-up Committee were established to provide general governance for the pandemic. Together, they