Brunei’s public spending on health was 2.1 per cent of GDP in 2011, which is equivalent to US$993 per capita. In the most recent survey, conducted between 1997 and 2010, there were 136 doctors, and 702 nurses and midwives per 100,000 people. There is universal maternal health care in the country and in 2012, 99 per cent of one-year-olds were immunised with one dose of measles (2011). The most recent survey available, conducted in 2010, reported that Brunei had ten pharmaceutical personnel per 100,000 people.
Health care in Brunei is fully subsidised by the government, and there are ten hospitals as well as health clinics, travelling clinics and a flying doctor service. The petroleum and natural gas industry has its own separate Occupational Health Service and the armed forces also have their own medical service, so workers in these sectors are not covered by the Ministry of Health’s Occupational Health Division. Brunei’s pharmaceutical industry benefits from the wealth of raw materials provided by the country’s rainforests, which have allowed it to focus on the niche halal pharmaceutical market. The country nonetheless imports most of its pharmaceutical requirements.
The most recent act relating to mental health in Brunei Darussalam is the Lunacy Act of 1929, although this is currently under revision. There are 1.5 mental health outpatient facilities and 9.8 psychiatric beds in general hospitals per 100,000 people (2011).