JEDDAH, 29 May 2004 — Saudi private hospitals must implement the Saudization regulations if they want to be part of a cooperative health insurance scheme, Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie said.
“This is one of the principal requirements,” said Manie, who is the chairman of the Cooperative Health Insurance Council.
The council is making final preparations to license private health insurance providers in the Kingdom.
“Hospitals must also get their medical, technical and administrative facilities ready to join the service,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying.
“The council has emphasized that it will not qualify hospitals ... unless they fulfill the Saudization condition,” he said.
Al-Manie said that private hospitals that want to be part of such schemes must have a well-qualified Saudi director while medical complexes with more than three clinics should have a Saudi administrative director. “The medical directors of hospitals must be Saudi doctors,” he added.
The minister expressed confidence in the capabilities of private hospitals. “They are capable of extending quality health services and playing a constructive role in supporting the government’s Saudization plan,” he added.
The move to Saudize jobs in private hospitals and health facilities comes as part of the government’s campaign to cut down the country’s unemployment rate, which is officially estimated at less than 10 percent.
Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi recently urged directors of labor offices in various parts of the Kingdom to give priority to Saudi job seekers. He also emphasized the need to cut recruitment of foreign manpower to the minimum.
Gosaibi recently banned small companies from recruiting foreign staff. “Labor offices have been instructed to prevent small companies with fewer than 10 workers from recruitment (of foreign staff),” he said.
The minister also decided to deny recruitment visas to private schools until they Saudize 80 percent of their jobs. There are more than 19,500 teaching and administrative jobs in the Kingdom’s private schools.
Gosaibi estimated the number of expatriates in the Kingdom at 8.8 million, a figure that is equivalent to nearly 50 percent of the indigenous population.
