JEDDAH: Over 15,000 medical “professionals” were banned from working in the Kingdom’s health sector for failing to pass efficiency tests or possessing forged certificates.
Dr. Hussein Al-Firaiji, secretary general of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, said 15,202 people had been banned and that his organization had uncovered 1,093 fake medical certificates since November.
Al-Firaiji said 129 deaths were caused by medical mistakes in the Kingdom last year alone. “Most of the forged certificates were in pharmacology, ophthalmology and nursing,” he said. The bulk of the forged certificates were in possession of nurses and pharmacists, followed by technicians and then dentists and opticians.
“There were only 57 medical doctors with forged certificates; they constituted the smallest number of people with forged documents. All other doctors banned from working in the Kingdom failed to pass the efficiency tests,” he said.
Al-Firaij said most of the forged certificates were from Southeast Asian countries and that the commission started scrutinizing certificates about 11 years ago. “Since then, we’ve been thoroughly checking papers. However, some government organizations and many private health establishments do not make it obligatory on their medical personnel to have their certificates attested by the commission,” he said.
Al-Firaiji said the decision tying iqama renewals for medical personnel with registration at the commission has not prevented violators and people with fake certificates from practicing medicine in the Kingdom.
“The security organs should join hands with us to keep the health sector clean from unqualified people,” he said.
He added that the increasing number of deaths due to medical mistakes is sufficient reason to search and ban unqualified medical staff.
