Health first• Chapter summary
It is perhaps axiomatic that the pandemic has had the biggest impact on the health sector. Saudi Arabia can look back proudly on its experience and management of its health services. Agile government leadership was crucial in setting a tone and attitude in laying out necessary lockdowns and a clear path out of the restrictions, whilst also turning to digital innovations to streamline and render more efficient the quotidian experience of the pandemic.
In response to the exigencies of limited public movement and the need to have applications for tracking, tracing, and vaccination, telehealth and the use of mobile application are among the main trends to have come to dominant the healthcare sector has a result of COVID-19. Over the course of the pandemic, these changes have altered the consumer experience of healthcare, making people more aware of their health needs and at the same time rendering healthcare more accessible. This has been a boon to both public and private providers of medical services, which has also been bolstered by the significant injection from the government.
Saudi Arabia accounts for about 60% of the industry’s revenue in the GCC. The upgrading of infrastructure and investment, in particular, in start-ups is sure to create fertile ground for competitions and make quality healthcare affordable. This is already visible in the impact on medical devices, which as a subsector is set to grow at least 10% over the next five to six years. Future developments are likely to be based on further cloud integration and a growing demand for personal devices, which is matched by an increase in public expenditure in the sector.
Maliha Hashmi, who sits on the NEOM COVID-19 Leadership Taskforce, emphasized how a “digital backbone” from administration and analysis to AI-supported diagnostics chimes with the health objectives in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which seeks to promote localization and privatization in the health industry. Hashmi’s assessment speaks to the long-lasting impact the digitization of the health sector is to have on molding the future of the industry. This sentiment is one echoed throughout this chapter and speaks to an industry that, in spite of the obvious calamity brought about the pandemic, is set to benefit and thrive going forward.