RIYADH - A 1,100-bed hospital complex being built in north Jeddah will be called the King Abdullah Medical Complex. An approval to this effect was granted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the Saudi Press Agency reported Tuesday. Spread over an area of 266,000 square meters, the complex consists of a 500-bed hospital, accident and injury center, neuroscience center, fertility center, two theaters for Caesarean operations, a state-of-the-art laboratory, and 45 outpatient clinics. It also has a 400-bed maternity and children's hospital, a 200-bed eye hospital, a multi-speciality dental center and a rehabilitation center. Minister of Health Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah said that the complex, which is one of the largest in the Kingdom, will be operational soon. The Saudi health care sector is the largest in the GCC. According to the World Bank, health expenditure in Saudi Arabia represented 4.3 percent of its GDP in 2010. This translates into approximately SR68.7 billion from both the private and public sectors. The share of public health of GDP contributed to around 2.7 percent, while the private sector stood at 1.6 percent. Based on NCB Capital's estimates, expenditure on the health sector is expected to increase to SR174 billion in 2017, with CAGR growth of 16.8 percent between 2011 and 2017. The increase in spending is due to the growing demand drivers for healthcare, it added. The government is playing an increasingly active role in the provision of healthcare in Saudi Arabia, thus positioning it as a vital factor in terms of the sectors' outlook. Healthcare expenditure by the government has grown at a CAGR of 18.0 percent between 2005 and 2012. The total Saudi budget came in at SR690 billion in 2012, versus SR580 billion in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 19 percent. However, total spending on the healthcare sector increased 26 percent, from SR68.7 billion in 2011 to SR86.5 billion in 2012. This represented 12.5 percent of the total budget in 2012 compared to 11.8 percent in 2011. Based on various data points from the ninth development plan of the Saudi government (covering the period 2010-2014), social and healthcare investments account for 19 percent of the total budgeted expenditure, equivalent to approximately SR274 billion.
