Four or five universities in Saudi Arabia are considering using public private partnership (PPP) for training hospitals, utilities and student housing.

The potential health PPPs are moving slowly, as the clients need to decide whether to incorporate clinical services into the PPP.

This would put significantly more responsibility onto the private sector, and therefore be very complex.

Consultants are discussing the various options with the universities ahead of advisors being appointed.

A number of major health projects in Saudi Arabia are being delayed as funding options are reviewed.

These include medical cities and university hospital projects.

There are seven university hospitals in the pipeline in Saudi Arabia, according to MEED Projects, worth around $700m in total.

This would be part of a wider push to implement PPP in a number of sectors, as set out in the National Transformation Plan.