An Overview Assessment of Healthcare in the State of Kuwait: Confronting Efficiency, Cost-Effectiveness, and Key Challenges Facing the Public Health System

Abstract

Amid dwindling resources and growing demands, global pursuits for cost-effectiveness in delivering quality care and interventions are intensifying as recent efforts shift towards optimizing essential medical supply chains. Yet, a viable balance of equity and efficiency in the allocation of health resources – without compromising one over the other – remain among the major implementation challenges in global public health systems. Public health system reforms must commit to achieving cost-effective, efficient, and equitable healthcare for all, prioritizing the Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) targets and indicators for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) when opting for allocation efficiency. In the case of Kuwait’s public health system, the country is challenged by several enduring problems, despite the government's significant investments in the healthcare industry during the previous few decades. Insufficient resources, volatile international oil prices, shifting disease trends, inadequate resource and capacity planning management in public hospitals, absence of national health information systems, and scarcity of medical personnel in the country. Given the scarcity of scientific studies on the efficiency of the public health sector (MoH) in relation to the private health sector (for-profit), or the performance of government hospitals just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, further research is particularly relevant to identifying efficiency determinants and eliminating internal/external factors of inefficiencies; thus informing policymakers to work towards better healthcare resource allocation in order to achieve health system efficiency and self-reliant healthcare service delivery that can prove resilient in times of unpredictable global emergencies. Further econometric evaluations are needed to assess healthcare efficiency in public hospitals and identify factors of hospital inefficiency resulting from internal factors, such as resource allocation and utilization within public hospitals and external factors within their surrounding vicinities. Lastly, future studies must consider comparing the relative efficiency of public and private health sectors in the State of Kuwait to assess whether ownership type (government-owned hospitals vs. privately-owned hospitals) affect efficiency levels of facilities delivering healthcare services.