Ministry of Health Background
The Ministry of Health is an integral part of the health system in the Kingdom of Bahrain as it is an essential component of the Supreme Council of Health. MOH is involved in all the duties and tasks of the Council and has an essential role in the issuance of decisions and policies related to health financing, as it is the executive body of the Supreme Council of Health in the field of quality, planning and training in line with the vision of the Kingdom of Bahrain 2030.
In accordance with the vision of the new health system and with the implementation of health insurance, the role of the Ministry of Health has shifted from a provider of the curative health services to a regulator, observer and evaluator of health services (health system governance) as an executive body, in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Health and its specialized committees along with the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA).
The new role of the Ministry of Health also focuses on providing and organizing public health services, health promotion and raising awareness through education programs that aims at controlling communicable and non-communicable diseases, in addition to providing mental health services and healthcare for the elderly in hospitals that are not subject to health insurance.
The Public Health Directorate is responsible for the provision of preventative health and environmental services and pandemic and diseases control. It also plays a major role in setting health standards, measures and following up on their implementation. Moreover, it provides several services, including occupational health services and communicable and non-communicable disease control services, control the spread of insects and rodents, and work to limit the spread of chronic diseases in the Bahraini society. Through the following sections: Disease Control, Food Control, Public Health Laboratory, Nutrition, Environmental Health, and School Health.
The Health Promotion Directorate works to enhance the health of individuals and the community by encouraging the adoption of healthy lifestyles and establishing settings that promote healthy practices, which contributes to improving the health of the population in the Kingdom of Bahrain, reducing the spread of non-communicable diseases and related risk factors, and raising the level of health awareness among citizens and residents, enhancing their self-responsibility, and forming partnerships with government and private sectors to promote health in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The priorities of the Ministry of Health for the future with the collaboration and effective partnership with relevant authorities, include raising the quality of performance by strengthening the executive role of the Quality Department in order to carry out its responsibility of following up the commitment to implementing the systems and meeting the standards approved by the Quality Committee, implementing the performance quality rewards system, and cooperating with NHRA in implementing the quality system, organizing periodic surveys to form an overview of citizens’ and residents’ opinion about health services, and communicating with stakeholders to develop health policies and a quality strategy.
As for planning and training, the Ministry is still working on the enhancement of the executive role of the Planning and Training Section to activate its role of examining Bahrain’s future needs in terms of the number of beds, various specializations, the number of doctors and nurses and all types of medical professions and the mechanism of their recruitment, and follow-up on the preparation and training of medical, nursing, assistance and administrative cadres in coordination with various health institutions and universities.
The Ministry of Health’s future priorities in the field of public health are to implement and follow up the health-related sustainable development goals and targets by developing a set of quality guidelines, strategic reports, providing health information, as well as strengthening scientific research on communicable and non-communicable diseases.
In the field of mental health and elderly care services, MOH works to enhance the performance of mental health services system and the performance of the special health services system for the elderly and consolidate and strengthen the international relations through the establishment of an office for the World Health Organization in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Moreover, the Ministry is going on with strengthening joint works and bilateral coordination in the health field at the regional and international level.
