Article 1 of the Saudi Health Law

This is the definitions article of the Health Law, and the rest of its articles are understood through it unless the context requires otherwise.

• Public health: an integrated view of the health of the individual, the family and the community, and the environmental, social, economic and genetic influences on it.
• Health care: preventive, curative and rehabilitative services at the primary, secondary and specialized levels.
• Primary health care: includes spreading health awareness, working with the relevant bodies to monitor environmental sanitation and the safety of drinking water and food and sound nutrition, integrated care for mother and child, immunization against infectious diseases, controlling endemic and infectious diseases, diagnosing and treating common diseases and injuries and conducting normal deliveries, and providing essential medicines.
• Secondary health care: what is provided by general hospitals and specialist doctors.
• Tertiary care (specialized or referral): what is provided by hospitals specialized in particular diseases that require advanced equipment and doctors with high specializations and sufficient experience.
• Providing health care: ensuring that it exists, without that necessarily meaning that the State provides or funds it directly, except as the Law's articles provide.
• The Minister and the Ministry: the Minister of Health and the Ministry of Health. The Council: the Health Services Council.

The most important of these definitions is that of "providing health care": it makes clear that the State's obligation to provide does not always mean providing or funding the service directly. Article 2 shows that the Law aims to ensure the provision of comprehensive, integrated health care for all residents in a fair and accessible manner.