RIYADH, 23 January 2008 — The Ministry of Health is to recruit more physicians from abroad to man the new Family Health Centers that would replace the existing Primary Health Centers in the Kingdom.
Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie said that these doctors would come from Arab countries such as Syria, Jordan, Sudan and Egypt. The ministry had completed 150 Family Health Centers in various parts of the Kingdom.
The existing Primary Healthcare Centers in the Kingdom are being converted into Family Health Centers with added facilities and health officials. Under the program, general practitioners at primary health care centers across the Kingdom are being replaced with family doctors.
The ministry has already hired 4,000 family doctors and another 7,000 will be recruited in the next two years. Physicians specializing in nutrition, psychology and counseling will also be made available in the new family health centers.
The minister said that the program aims at provide all Saudi families access to a family doctor.
The ministry has plans to send Saudi doctors to Arab countries, such as Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia to specialize in family medicine. A number of committees appointed by the minister are currently supervising the implementation of this Kingdom-wide program.
Currently in the Kingdom, the doctor-patient ratio is 1:4,000, but the program intends to bring it down to 1:400.
Some 50,000 physicians are currently working in the Kingdom serving a population of 26 million. In the primary health care sector alone, there are 10,000 physicians working in the government, public and private sectors.
