RIYADH – About 90 percent of Ministry of Health hospital directors do not hold administrative qualifications, revealed a study presented at a Saudi Society of Health Administration meeting in Riyadh. Dr. Humood Al-Shammary, who conducted the study and who runs Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Mishari Hospital, said his research covered all hospital directors in the Kingdom. He said: “A third of medical directors do not hold bachelor's degree while 89 percent of them think that they don't need academic degrees to run hospitals because this is something acquired through experience.” Dr. Al-Shammary said when the medical directors were asked how they landed these posts, their answers varied. Some of them said they did not have another option while some wanted to contribute to serving the health sector and others wanted to get promoted. Some said they wanted influential posts with financial perks. The main problems these directors faced included shortage of qualified administrative and medical staff, centralization of the Health Affairs Directorate, limited powers given to hospital directors, inability to meet the demands of all society members and problems related to wasta (connections). The chairman of the Saudi Society for Health Administration, Khalid Bin Saeed, said the meeting focused on training needs for health administrators. The most important recommendations included arranging for hospital directors to travel to the United States and do health administration fellowship programs. Studies that emphasize the significance of training in health administration should be encouraged while training centers should be set up to improve the skills of medical directors. Graduates of health administration programs in Saudi universities, especially those who graduated from King Saud University's Master's programs, should be evaluated. The meeting recommended a training program to qualify medical directors and also keep them updated on the latest developments in this field. Private and public health institutions were also told to train their staff in health administration skills.
