Ministry of Health (Palestine)

The **Ministry of Health** (Arabic: وزارة الصحة *wuzārat aṣ-ṣaḥah*) is a ministry of the Council of Ministers of Palestine, responsible for overseeing the national healthcare system including hospitals and other treatment centres and related services and infrastructure, as well as private corporations in the healthcare industry. The state provides a full range of healthcare services free of charge to all citizens via a single-payer system. The Ministry of Health is also responsible for licensing private facilities and setting out medicinal and professional regulations and standards of practice. It uses an evidence-based approach toward optimising and streamlining stages of care across the multiple health services overseen by the ministry.

The Ministry of Health headquarters is located in the Bab el-Zahara borough of East Jerusalem, next door to the official headquarters of the Palestinian National Fire Rescue Society, a couple blocks north of the Old City of Jerusalem. The current Minister of Health is Dr. Mosa el-Sarraj, in office since 2010.

## Organisation

The Ministry of Health oversees six directorates (each of which have several subordinate bureaus and offices), six autonomous offices, and one authority directly under the Minister of Health's supervision and not subordinate to any bureau or directorate:

* National Health Authority (NHA): The government agency responsible for operating Palestine's single-payer universal healthcare system, from hospitals and primary care clinics to drug and alcohol treatment and mental health rehabilitation centres. The NHA also has a degree of jurisdictional control over the other directorates, especially in issues related to public health policy.

### Directorates

* Consumer Health Directorate: Oversees the licensing of medications and other medical products by private pharmaceutical companies, as well as investigations of breaches of pharmaceutical regulatory standards.
* Food Safety Regulatory Directorate: Responsible for ensuring health and safety standards are met at all stages of the food service industry.
* Professional Standards Regulatory Directorate: Responsible for setting out and enforcing professional standards within the healthcare sector, including licensing medical and nursing schools and residency programs and managing board certification of medical professionals.
* Research and Development Directorate: Oversees and ensures excellence in state-funded medical research programs and subsidies, including but not limited to cancer treatment research, expansion of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis-C treatment programs, and coordination of research programs between the public health system and the faculties of health of national universities.
* Medical Statistics Directorate: Responsible for collecting and maintaining a national database of health-related statistics, from rates of birth, death, and diagnosis of disease to long-term implications of variations in public health policy, financial or otherwise.
* Transfusion and Transplant Directorate: Responsible for overseeing the national system of organ and tissue transplant and blood transfusion and donor registration and recipient waitlisting.

### Autonomous offices

* Medical Policy Improvement Office: Oversees implementation of national policy across the healthcare system as well as quality control and ensuring professionalism within the system.
* Veterans Care Quality Improvement Office: Responsible for improving veterans' access to treatment programs and expanding the availability of such programs across the national healthcare system.
* Waste Management and Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) Office: Responsible for overseeing the proper disposal of all forms of waste, as well as maintaining the national workplace hazardous materials information system. Also operates a professional HAZMAT team capable of responding to toxic or biological waste accidents and oil spills.
* Health Legal Department: Oversees the enforcement of national laws and regulations within the healthcare system, as well as the investigation of infractions of these laws and prosecution of corrupt or incompetent healthcare professionals.
* Health Financial Department: Oversees the single-payer system and the budget for all national healthcare programs and related services.
* Health Human Resources Department: Responsible for hiring and compensating all Ministry of Health staff.