MADINAH — The Ministry of Health has strongly denied reports circulating on social media websites saying all government hospitals in the country will be privatized by the year 2017. "This is just an electronic rumor of no truth at all," the ministry's department of information and public relations has said. A message from an unknown tweeter, which went viral on the WhatsApp, alleged that all the government hospitals would be handed over to the private sector to operate starting with the health facilities in the Western region. The tweeter alleged that the government hospitals would be given to three private Saudi medical groups and 19 foreign companies to run. It said 2017 would be the last year for the ministry's budget to run government hospitals in the Kingdom. The tweet also claimed that a meeting to discuss the issue was recently held at the ministry with one of the owners of a big private hospital in Jeddah attending.
