Is there a need to involve doctors in management of health care in Saudi Arabia.

Recently, the role of doctors and managers in health care management has become a hot topic in the newspapers and public magazine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aim of this paper is to contribute constructively and scientifically to this topical issue by emphasizing that commonality and interaction between medicine and management dictate more involvement of doctors in management. Although one may argue that doctors are usually not well trained in resources management, scientific evidence supports the need for more involvement of doctors in managing health care system. In addition, government needs to make a strategic shift towards high quality primary and preventive care to enable doctors in management role to maintain essential services and contain cost.