RIYADH, 14 March 2005 — The Kingdom hopes a new injection of 2,000 women nurses from Indonesia will remedy a chronic staff shortage that is plaguing Saudi hospitals, but officials say Saudization is the prescription that will provide the real cure.
To cope with the acute shortage of nurses in Saudi hospitals, the Kingdom is hiring 2,000 women nurses from Indonesia. The documents of the nurses are being verified, and those who pass a formal selection test within a few weeks will be deployed to Saudi hospitals upon arrival.
“The process of recruitment is under way,” said M. Sukiarato, labor attaché at the Indonesian Embassy.
There could be a complication, however. “The female nurses will be sent to Saudi Arabia only after we settle the problems faced by the first batch of Indonesian medical personnel,” Sukiarto said on Saturday.
A group of 22 Indonesian doctors and 48 nurses, who arrived in the first batch late last year, have lodged some undisclosed complaints with the embassy.
Other Indonesian officials say the nurses will be coming. “Nurses who passed the selection test and fulfilled the requirements will be immediately sent to Saudi Arabia,” said Dr. Budi Rahayu, chief of the Indonesian Human Resources Empowerment Division.
“The nurses will be employed by the public hospitals in the Kingdom, while their wages will be governed by the regulations of the host country.”
The move is prompted by Saudi girls’ reluctance to enroll in nursing colleges or even consider nursing as a profession.
The Kingdom’s hospitals need about 100,000 nurses and other paramedical staff, while there are only about 1,000 Saudi nurses. The acute shortages are addressed through foreign recruitment.
Without a change in attitude by Saudis about the nursing profession, the prognosis won’t be good. Today, 90 percent of the nurses working in the country are non-Saudi, whereas more than 70 percent of the patients checking into the public and private-sector hospitals are Saudi nationals, creating an urgent need to Saudize this sector. More nursing colleges are urgently needed. And more Saudi students are needed to fill those classrooms and later the hospitals that make up the Kingdom’s health care system.
