Although the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia comprises the largest area of the Arabic peninsula southwest of Asia, it continues to provide high standards in health care. Medical technology is continually upgraded. One of the first initiatives of King Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, was to improve health care facilities and to provide free medical treatment to all citizens and to pilgrims who travel to Mecca.^10,11

The report of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2006¹⁷ shows that the total population of Saudi Arabia is 24,573,000. Life expectancy at birth is 59.8 years for males and 62.9 years for females. Child mortality per 1,000 is 29 for males and 24 for females. Adult mortality per 1,000 is 196 for males and 120 for females.¹⁷ Saudi Arabia’s health care achievements now match those of many developed countries. Saudi Arabians are no longer required to travel abroad to get specialized medical treatment. The country has the facilities to train physicians, nurses, and other medical personnel to staff the infrastructures of the Saudi health care system, which extends today to most remote communities in the country (Table 1). The government of Saudi Arabia continues to provide massive support to existing health projects in order to ensure that health services are accessible to all people at all levels.^9,12

The Saudi health system has developed strategies to achieve the following objectives^9,12:

The Saudi health system faces several challenges^9,12:

To overcome these challenges, the Saudi health system developed four phases of planning with shifts, changes in priorities, and overtime organizational arrangements. The proliferation of the health system within a short period of time had brought into focus several health-planning issues such as coordination, health information systems, and the need for establishing national bodies for health planning and accreditation. To achieve the objectives of the Saudi health system, the Kingdom organized the delivery of health care into several levels.^9,12

This service is defined as the health care provided by primary care physicians evaluating patients. In Saudi Arabia, the primary care centers are distributed evenly in the country to include variable urban and rural regions. All major health sectors provide primary care centers in the country, but the Ministry of Health (MOH) remains the largest health sector providing primary health care in Saudi Arabia through a number of hospitals and polyclinics established at a standard design to match the numbers and needs of the population served (Table 2).^6,8,12,13

Primary care physicians can refer patients to a higher level of health service according to their needs.^6,8,12,13

This level comprises most of the general hospitals in Saudi Arabia, and the Ministry of Health represents almost 63% of hospital beds in Saudi Arabia, followed by other hospitals (Table 2). Physicians practicing at this level can refer patients to tertiary care hospitals as needed. The Ministry of Defense and Aviation operates a medical evacuation program consisting of assigned equipped executive jets and helicopter aircrafts with flight physicians and nurses to transport patients to tertiary care centers.

In Saudi Arabia, a number of tertiary care hospitals are available and receive patients with complex medical conditions from different regions of the country. These centers provide advanced facilities for diagnosis and management of various medical and surgical disorders under the supervision of highly trained medical experts. Some of these centers are world famous for referrals, teaching, and research such as the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center and the Riyadh Military Hospital.

Major health care–providing sectors include government and private hospitals. Governmental sectors include the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, the Ministry of Interior, the National Guard, University Hospitals, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, and the general organization for social insurance hospitals. The private sector hospitals provide a vital contribution to health service and have expanded dramatically over the past decade; there are a number of these hospitals and clinics in Saudi Arabia.⁸

Epilepsy is a major neurologic disorder in Saudi Arabia. The incidence and prevalence of epilepsy in Saudi Arabia are
underestimated. Head trauma due to road traffic accidents remain a major etiology of epilepsy in Saudi Arabia due to the high rate of road traffic accidents. Other etiologies of epilepsy in Saudi Arabia include cerebrovascular diseases, trauma, central nervous system infections, and developmental and genetic disorders. There is a significant reduction in prenatal injury as an etiology of epilepsy due to advanced obstetric and pediatric care.^{2,3,4,5,7,14,15,16} Epileptic patients in Saudi Arabia can be treated by primary care physicians, pediatricians, and internists, but more often they are referred to adult and pediatric neurologists in major cities of the country. Facilities for digital electroencephalography (EEG) and neuroimaging with computed tomography (CT) scans or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are available in general hospitals distributed throughout the country.