Rashed Al-Fawzan Al Riyadh Reports of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties indicate that Saudis constitute 30.4 percent of all professionals in various health sectors. This translates into 130,000 Saudis versus 317,000 non-Saudis. This includes doctors, pharmacists, nurses and technicians. Of course, the sector needs more Saudis. When we specifically talk about doctors and pharmacists, we find that there are over 25,000 Saudi doctors and 7,000 Saudi pharmacists accounting for 20.1 percent and 18 percent of the total number of staff in these two categories. On the other hand, we have around 39,000 expatriate pharmacists. The actual need for pharmacists exceeds this figure. The total number of Saudi nurses is 72,000 accounting for 29.4 percent of the total number of nurses in the Kingdom which stands at 245,000. In light of these statistics, we should not be surprised when we read about problems in the health sector or when people ask why it is not improving or growing. I believe the health sector should be divided into different sections like Saudi Arabian Airlines. We should have a medical section, a maintenance and services section, a construction section, a training section, a rehabilitation section, a health center section, etc. The Ministry of Health knows better and should divide the sector into appropriate sections. The goal is to facilitate the job of monitoring, following up and resolving problems within each sector. We need more medical staff as the statistics show. It is going to be a tall order. Developing skilled human beings takes time. All of the ministry's staff should work together to accomplish this goal.
