The Ministry of Health has cracked down on health officials who were involved in refusing to hire 44 qualified Saudi women nurses at King Abdullah Hospital in Bisha Governorate, when there were 41 posts available. According to directives from Dr. Aqeel Bin Jam'an Al-Ghamdi, Assistant Undersecretary for Curative Medicine, it was decided to remove the Assistant Financial and Administrative Director from his post and not to assign him with any important tasks in future at the hospital or at the Directorate of Health Affairs. In addition, it was decided to transfer the Deputy Supervisor General of the hospital to the Directorate of Health Affairs. Al-Ghamdi based his decision on the recommendations of the Committee for Evaluating Health Services in Bisha, under the chairmanship of the Director General of Hospitals at the ministry. In its report, the committee disclosed that the hospital administration had hindered the employment of the 44 Saudi women nurses despite the existence of 41 vacancies. There was an acute shortage of nursing staff, where each nurse had to work 12 hour shifts. Furthermore, the 44 Saudi nurses had passed the evaluation test. The committee also recommended taking measures, in coordination with the General Administration for Operation Contracts, to resolve the transfer of security supervisors and women cleaning supervisors to the self-operation program at the hospital. The committee also called on the hospitals to properly organize the emergency and ambulatory section, and the outpatient clinics, to deal with the daily recurrent problems between patients and employees in these sections. The committee also recommended that maintenance work should be carried out in the emergency and intensive care units and to provide the emergency room with a respirator.
