Minister of Health: 60% decrease in deaths from accidents and infectious diseases since 2016

Minister of Health Fahd Al-Jalajel confirmed that the new model of health care in Saudi Arabia has achieved major leaps in citizen health indicators, even though health spending did not exceed 5% of GDP, indicating that the continuation of the old model would have pushed this percentage to more than 20% within 3 decades.

Al-Jalajel said in his speech during the Saudi Arabia Budget 2026: "If we continued with the reality of 2016 for 30 years, our spending on the health sector could have exceeded 20% of the gross domestic product. A number of things were done, including establishing health clusters, changing the financial payment model, and working on the health in all policies model."

A radical shift in health outcomes

The Minister of Health explained that this strategic shift focused on the actual needs of the population through health clusters approaching 1.2 million health clusters.

Reducing death rates

Al-Jalajel revealed record achievements in reducing the main causes of death since the launch of Vision 2030 in 2016, represented by reducing deaths resulting from Road accidents by 60%, and reducing deaths resulting from infectious diseases by 50%, an achievement that no other country has achieved.

He also pointed to reducing deaths from non-communicable diseases by 40%, and reducing deaths resulting from unintentional injuries by 30%.

The Minister of Health concluded his speech by emphasizing that the central target of all this movement and development is the Saudi citizen, and that these results reflect the effectiveness of the new health model and his ability to anticipate challenges. The future is faced with high efficiency, thus achieving sustainability and quality in health services.

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