The Palestinian Ministry of Health adheres to the principle of working together with all partners to develop and improve performance in the health sector in order to ensure the healthy management of the health sector and to create a leadership capable of setting policies and organizing work and ensuring quality services for the Palestinian citizen through a comprehensive health system that operates efficiently and fairly. The Palestinian government has created a system of medical referrals to compensate for the shortage of government health institutions, whether this shortage of specialties, medical expertise, equipment or medical facilities. This system raise the ability of the ministry to accommodate the numbers of patients, through the purchase of medical services from local medical institutions from outside the Ministry of Health, whether private sector institutions or civil institutions or charitable institutions, in addition to the possibility of buying medical services from other countries if not available in local health institutions.

Criteria for identifying cases that may be referred to other institutions

a. Lack of required service in government health institutions.

B. Lack of medical equipment.

T. No beds due to full occupancy.

W. There is a long waiting list of more than 6 months.

C. Obligation to pay the patient's share of the total cost of treatment as stipulated by the Health Insurance regulations.

H. Obtaining the consent of the medical referral committees to the advanced recommendation by the government hospitals.

E. Valid health insurance must be provided by the patient prior to making the referral decision.

 Objectives and vision of service purchase Unit

The service purchase Unit seeks to provide the best health services to the Palestinian citizen by a mechanism that enables those who deserve this service to enjoy it easily and without hindering or segregating people. This will be done through rationalizing and nationalizing the purchase of all health services that the Ministry of Health cannot provide through integration and promotion of the private health sector in Palestine without compromising the health of the patient. SPU major strategies are:

• Prepare policies, strategies and instructions related to the system of referrals in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations.

· Training and building the capacity of the staff of the service purchase Unit to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in performance.

· Providing the infrastructure, equipment, and electronic systems necessary for the conduct of related operations and activities so as to ensure the provision of medical referral service within established standards.

• Monitor the level of performance of all parties related to medical referrals and corrects any deviation in activity.