RIYADH — A senior health official underlined the need for restructuring the Kingdom's health sector as well as making available 24-hour medical care at primary health centers and clinics under the Ministry of Health. Dr. Muhammad Al-Zahrani, director of the division for hospitals at the Health Affairs Department in Riyadh, said a shortfall of qualified medical staff is the major challenge facing the Kingdom's health sector. “Opening of five health centers in Riyadh city alone has been delayed due to the scarcity of medical staff,” he told Alsharq Arabic daily. Reacting to complaints that health centers are simply centers for distributing Panadol and cough syrup, the official noted that at present, both citizens and expatriates are not satisfied with the way health centers function. Al-Zahrani said that it is high time to restructure the health sector and allow primary health centers to play a major role in every neighborhood by making medical care available round the clock. He also said there is also a need to establish emergency centers in each district in order to avoid congestion at hospitals. Al-Zahrani attributed several reasons to the shortage of doctors and paramedical staff at Ministry of Health hospitals and health centers. “The Kingdom is not keeping pace with its rapid population growth and still does not have an adequate number of medical colleges. There has been a substantial increase in the number of universities in recent years but the number of Saudis graduating from these universities is not at all sufficient to meet the growing requirements and hence we rely on hiring foreign staff,” he said. According to Al-Zahrani, the public health sector faces stiff competition from the private sector as well as from neighboring Gulf states with regard to hiring well-qualified and experienced medical staff. “The private sector and other Gulf states can hire highly qualified foreign candidates by offering them the best living conditions as well as higher salaries and allowances. Even in the case of those hired by the ministry, there are several problems. Many of them refuse to work in remote regions apparently because of their inability to adapt to the surroundings and the lack of educational facilities for their children,” he said. On efforts to recruit medical staff, Al-Zahrani said the ministry is sending expert panels to several countries to hire qualified staff. “Nearly one month ago, we sent committees to a number of countries for the purpose. There is a permanent committee in Egypt to hire doctors and paramedical staff. Earlier, we sent a committee to Cuba to recruit doctors but to no avail,” he said. Referring to the apathy of Saudi youths to join medical courses, Al-Zahrani said young Saudis consider both the subject of medicine and the medical profession as “a tough one”. “Apart from this, there are limitations at medical faculties to accommodate all applicants,” he said while stressing the need for opening more medical colleges and expanding existing ones. Al-Zahrani also drew attention to the poor condition of several government hospitals. “There are government hospitals that are 30 years old, even in the capital. Even though the ministry made some efforts to renovate some of the infrastructure and buildings, there are no measures to increase beds and other requirements for inpatients.”
