JEDDAH, 1 February 2005 — More than 3,000 female students studying in private health institutes are worried about not being able to work because their diplomas might not be approved by the Saudi Council for Health Services.
Until recently, all 36 private health institutes offering training for women were not licensed by SCHS which meant that the students who graduated and paid for the training could not enroll in hospitals to complete their internship and become qualified to work.
The students did not know that the institutes were not licensed until it was too late. The institutes were approved by the General Institute for Vocational Training which was in charge of licensing them, but since the beginning of 2004 the SCHS was assigned to take control of the process because of the discrepancies and chaos in the different programs and standards.
“The General Institute is not a health agency and the training programs approved by it for the institutes were not adequate,” Khalid Al-Harbi of SCHS told Arab News.
He said that these institutes were providing training for men and opened sections for women without going through the process of getting a license for these sections. “There is no difference between the training received by men and women, but the SCHS looks at the facilities and personnel in addition to the programs themselves to ensure that they meet the required standards,” he explained.
He said that there is a new administration at the SCHS called the Administration for Health Institutes under Dr. Fahd Al-Hadian which is supervising and following up on all health institutes and health training programs even in hospitals. Some of the programs are also still unlicensed. “We emphasize to applicants and students to find out before they enroll and pay whether the institute is licensed,” he said.
“The institute did not tell us that they were not licensed. When we graduated and couldn’t be enrolled in an internship, the institute told us that it is only a matter of time before their diplomas are approved. It has been over six months now,” said a graduate.
The SCHS has informed all institutes of the pre-requisite for a license from them in order to continue offering their training programs or face consequences. The SCHS warned five institutes last month of suspending their licenses because they advertised that their programs were approved and licensed by it, including the women’s programs, before they received that approval.
The SCHS stated that it does not bear any responsibility for a student enrolling in an institute before checking if it was approved and licensed. But the institute may be made to refund the fees to the student if his or her diploma was still not recognized.
The low standard of the graduates from these private institutes is what prompted the decision to put these institutes under the supervision of the SCHS.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Health has warned all health affairs administrations against hiring any graduates of these institutes until they pass the necessary exams conducted by the ministry.
