JEDDAH, 24 February 2003 — In a series of drastic cost-cutting measures, King Faisal Hospital and Research Center in Jeddah is downsizing its nursing and medical staff.

The aim is to reduce staffing levels by 20 percent. The executive and virtually all the administrative staff are unaffected by the cuts.

In addition, the hospital is looking for a 20 percent increase in output, the exact nature of which is not clearly defined. One source told Arab News that a proposal has been made to increase the number of beds each member of the nursing staff is responsible for.

Another measure may be the elimination of the annual 10-day unpaid professional study leave, which is a part of the doctors’ contractual benefits.

As a result, many Western staff are deciding either not to renew their contracts or to accept redundancy offers. Those who are renewing their contract face a 10 percent cut in benefits.

Some senior specialists have already left, and one senior Saudi executive medical specialist recently spent a short “familiarization” sabbatical with a major international company in the Kingdom.

In a series of verbal memos, the nursing staff have been offered three choices.

They can take six months unpaid leave, provided they do not work anywhere else but with no promise of a job on their return. They can stay on for 60 days to look for other work and then voluntarily take a posting to another hospital — with no indication of where that might be. Or they can choose not to renew their contracts.

A number of contracts have come to an end. Most staff have decided not to renew because of insecurity about their future with the hospital.

Job advertisements listed on a medical website for the hospital indicate a skill shortage. Senior vacancies include chairman, critical care and consultants in oral surgery, anesthesia, cardiac intervention and palliative care. Another 16 vacancies list openings for positions ranging from nurses to medical technologists. There were no advertisements for administrators.

But with two senior executives having 12 secretaries and assistants between them — and with only 30 percent of the total number of secretaries and assistants Saudi — it is hard to see either where they would work or how the Saudization policy is being put into practice.

Another senior source at the hospital told Arab News that the administration is in total disarray, adding that a highly qualified Saudi manager has been given 60 days notice “due to manpower reduction.”

At the same time, he added, several Saudis with only high school certificates and little experience in administration are being recruited for similar and even higher positions.

“Staff morale is at an all-time low,” he said. “The long period where salaries were not paid demoralized many of the nursing staff and the lower grades of Saudi staff. In most cases, bonuses and other benefits have still not been paid.”

Many of the hospital’s financial problems stem from unpaid bills.

“Instead of monthly invoicing to the Ministry of Health, the backlog has been allowed to rise to huge amounts,” he said. “There is still a massive backlog of unpaid bills from suppliers.”

The main free pharmacy in the hospital has a limited supply of drugs and medication. However, in the same building, and only during working hours, patients are able to buy their medication from a privately-owned pharmacy.

“Why are there two pharmacies, and why does one have drugs and not the other when both are supplied from the same source?”

In an attempt to raise income, the administration is planning to introduce a “visit fee” payable before seeing a consultant.

The hospital has 200 beds available and 186 executive managers to service them.

Last week, there were just over 80 patients. There are over 1,800 employees on the payroll, in addition to 800 outside contracted support staff.

Cutting back on patient care and reducing medical staff was not the way to solve the problem, the source said.

“What does this tell the prospective patient? Without nurses and medical staff, there is no patient care and therefore no hospital service to offer.”