Bahrain has a universal health care system, dating back to 1960. Government-provided health care is free to Bahraini citizens and subsidized for non-Bahrainis. Healthcare expenditure accounted for 4.5% of Bahrain’s GDP, according to the World Health Organization. Bahraini physicians and nurses form a majority of the country’s workforce in the health sector, unlike neighboring Gulf states. The first hospital in Bahrain was the American Mission Hospital, which opened in 1893 as a dispensary. The first public hospital, and also tertiary hospital, to open in Bahrain was the Salmaniya Medical Complex, in the Salmaniya district of Manama, in 1957. The Psychiatric Hospital is the only such public hospital in the country. Private hospitals are also present throughout the country, such as the International Hospital of Bahrain.
