Although Chief Advisor Sir Charles Belgrave was reluctant to endorse a welfare state, the introduction to the annual report of the surgeon-general in the last year of Salman's rule (after the King had suffered a severe heart attack) stated that "the most important reform ever of the Health Administration was the King’s offering free health care to citizens and visitors alike early this year."

Sheikh Salman founded a committee to collect donations for Palestinians expected to be expelled in the wake of the 1947 passage of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, ultimately raising 66,000 rupees in addition to other pledges and in-kind help.

A second round of donations spearheaded by Sheikh Abdullah bin Isa Al Khalifa collected 105,000 rupees for conversion into Iraqi dinars, which he sent to Syrian President of Syria Shukri al-Quwatli for distribution to Palestinian refugees there.

Finally, in the wake of the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Sheikh Salman directly donated 100,000 rupees to the UNRWA, the local United Nations relief organization.

After sipping Arabic coffee, he greeted waiting citizens and discussed their petitions, then began his official schedule of interviews, meetings, daily surveys, and letters.

He refused to yield to doctors’ advice to rest more in his old age, but acquiesced to his sons Isa and Khalifa's urging to convalesce in the Safra neighborhood where they could relay information in and orders out.