Health services and the political culture of Saudi Arabia

Health services occupy a high priority in the development agenda of Saudi Arabia. Saudi culture--devotion to Islam, extended-family values, the segregated status of females and the Al Saud monarchic hegemony--is being formulated in an increasingly deliberate fashion, constituting a new 'political culture' which acts as a screen to insure that technological and human progress remain within acceptable bounds. There is a general disposition on the part of the Saudi populace to use modern health services as these become available, largely under governmental auspice. The role of the government in providing health care for pilgrims during the hajj to Mecca is of particular cultural importance. Cultural sensitivities concerning male physicians and female patients will be minimized by the training of a substantial number of Saudi female physicians, whose efforts will be directed toward female patients. At present, most health care in the Kingdom is delivered by male expatriate physicians, as part of the general massive reliance upon expatriate workers: although the expatriates will eventually be replaced by Saudi physicians, this dependency, which is felt to threaten Saudi culture, will continue for a decade or more. Private medicine is rapidly increasing though not on the same scale as government medicine. The provision of government health services is a source of legitimation for the Al Saud regime. In general, health services appear to constitute a form of modernization which meets the test of cultural compatibility.