Remarks by Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director at the 24th Arab Conference on Modern Methods in Hospital Management “The Role of the Private and Third Sectors in[...]

10 December 2025, Muscat

Your Excellency Dr Ahmed Mandhari, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Planning and Health Organization,

Your Excellency Dr Nasser Al-Qahtani, Director-General of the Arab Administrative Development Organization,

Your Excellency Mr Khalid Suliman Alsaleem, Managing Director, Mouwasat Medical Services Company,

Your Excellency Dr Ahmed Aboabat, Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Conference,

Colleagues and partners,

It is a privilege to address the 24^th Arab Conference on Modern Methods in Hospital Management, and to discuss how modernizing hospital management and engaging the private and third sectors can strengthen health systems and advance universal health coverage in our Region.

Hospitals worldwide, and particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean, are navigating rising expectations, increased demand for critical care, rapid technological change, workforce shortages, climate-related shocks, and fiscal constraints. These pressures call for a renewed vision of hospital management aligned with integrated, PHC-oriented, people-centred health systems, as reaffirmed in the Astana Declaration.

Hospitals are central to system performance. Modernization is therefore about stronger governance, better care delivery, and a clearer contribution to overall system improvement.

First, hospital management must rest on strong leadership and accountability. Hospitals should be data-driven and well connected with primary care, referral pathways, and community services. When roles, financing, and performance measures align, hospitals become engines of safe, effective, and equitable care. Through our capacity-building efforts, we have trained and mentored hundreds of hospital managers across the Region.

Second, modern hospitals require coordinated, multidisciplinary, digitally enabled services. Seamless communication, decision-support tools, and teams organized around patient pathways strengthen safety, continuity, and efficiency.

Third, resilient hospitals that maintain essential services during shocks protect both the system and the communities they serve. We have made progress in this area by developing the first inter-regional operational guide on hospital resilience, piloting it in several EMR countries, and building managers' capacity to apply it.

Excellencies, these ambitions require partnership.

The private sector already provides a significant share of services and-with strong governance, strategic purchasing, accreditation, and shared information systems-can expand access and drive innovation. EMRO has been supporting countries to engage private hospitals through resilience assessments, national emergency response frameworks, and quality-improvement initiatives.

NGOs, civil society, and faith-based organizations also play vital roles. In Yemen and Sudan, partnerships have enabled emergency medical teams, mobile health services, and community-based surveillance networks that complement hospital functions during crises.

Across the Easter Mediterranean Region, our aim is to advance a whole-of-system, whole-of-society approach that aligns public institutions, private providers, and community actors behind a shared vision of equitable, high-quality, people-centred care.