MAKKAH: The Ministry of Health will not renew any work contracts with doctors, nurses and medical technicians both in private and government sectors unless they pass a test of the Saudi Council for Health Specialties, Al-Madinah daily reported yesterday.
“The Medical and Pharmacy Licensing Department of the Health Directorate in the Makkah province has sent a memo to medical and related establishments about the decision. The department has also taken steps to prepare a database for health establishments in the province,” Dr. Muhammad Al- Mehmadi, director of the department, told the newspaper.
“The council rejected 1,500 certificates of doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other medical technicians in various medical specializations because it suspected the genuineness of the documents during the past few months. The attestation of the council has been rated very high not in the Kingdom alone but internationally as well,” said Dr. Hussein Al-Feraihi, secretary-general of the council. “Though the council did not have the evidence to prove that all those documents were forged, it has the right to reject a certificate if it suspects its origin or credibility.”
The council detected 800 fake certificates while registering and grading their certificates for registration. The fake documents included those of doctors, pharmacists, nurses, opticians, laboratory technicians and physiotherapists, dental technicians and technicians of X-ray, sterilization, anesthesia, EEG, labor rooms and blood banks.
“However, the council has learned that some of the holders of rejected certificates are still working in their respective establishments, even after it notified the licensing department about such people,” he said.
He added that the licensing department did not have sufficient number of inspectors to make field checks and stop unqualified people from working.
The council had informed the Passport Department and the Ministry of Health of the matter, he said.
He put the total number of barred medical workers in the Kingdom at 12,000. The ban is either temporary or final. The permanent ban is mostly because of the negligence in professional ethics or unacceptable qualifications including forgery. Temporary ban is for the workers who do not pass the evaluation tests, which they might pass later after attending more training programs, he said.
Meanwhile, Madinah Gov. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Majed ordered a committee to study and evaluate the courses and activities of all private medical institutes in the province. The students of many of these institutes have been complaining about the poor standards of teaching and training they received.
