NAJRAN: Three unemployed pharmacy graduates from Najran have claimed that they have been ignored for jobs in favor of foreigners at the Directorate of Health Affairs in Najran. Several foreign pharmacists are working at public hospitals in the region, they added. Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sahreef, Assistant Director of Therapeutic Medicine at the directorate, said the reason they have not been employed is that the Executive Council at the Ministry of Health has not yet approved the employment of pharmacists for the directorate, which needs 129 pharmacists and 92 assistant pharmacists. “It should be understood that the directorate can't employ any citizen or foreigner in any medical job unless the ministry approves an allocation for new vacancies.” Saleh Ahmad Al-Salem, Ali Hamad Al-Messad and Hamir Jaber Al-Dhubyan, who graduated from King Khaled University in Abha said: “After graduation we applied for pharmacist posts at the directorate of health in Najran where the officials concerned promised to absorb us after the approval of the new state budget. We were taken by surprise when they told us we have to wait until next year when the ministry approves an allocation for new employment.” “Amazingly this is happening at a time when several foreign pharmacists are working at the ministry's hospitals in the region.” They said they had spent five years studying pharmacy at the college and were trained for four months at King Khaled Hospital in Najran, but now find themselves on the streets. They said they submitted a petition to Dr. Yahyia Bin Muhammad Al-Shawail, General Director of Health Affairs in Najran, complaining about the delay. He referred the complaint to the Pharmacies Administration “but its reply has dashed all our hopes” because the head of the administration said there was no money for new posts. “Believe it or not this is happening when the Ministry of Health said in a report the Kingdom will take 20 years to meet the shortage of national pharmacists.”
