Participants at the opening of the three-day forum on support services in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Minister of Health Khalid Al-Falih has announced that there are about 8,000 jobs for citizens at facilities in the country.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after the opening session of the second ministry forum on the latest trends in health care support services, he said the ministry would hire expatriates only if suitably qualified Saudis are not available.

Al-Falih said that the ministry has a long-term restructuring strategy. “The current structure will be enhanced and improved with the available human and physical resources, with a focus on completing current projects, and an eye on long-term improvements to transform health care services in the country.”

Al-Falih, in his opening address at the three-day event, thanked the Saudi leadership for supporting the health care sector. He said the ministry was committed to providing comprehensive and quality care for citizens.

He said the provision of such services is based on three essential pillars, facilities, human resources, and regulations. The Kingdom currently has 275 hospitals with a capacity of around 40,000 beds, which carry out over 1,000 operations daily. There are more than 2,280 primary health care centers across the Kingdom.

“The capacity of this system will be doubled within the coming few years once the five giant medical cities and the many health care facilities currently under construction are completed,” he said.

The minister said there would be a greater focus on education and training of health care professionals, including support staff like pharmacists, nurses and paramedics.

He said the ministry was currently working on updating and developing the rules and regulations at the ministry, to enhance the performance of practitioners.

Muneera Al-Osaimi, the assistant deputy minister for support services, told Arab News that the forum is aimed at educating public and private professionals on the latest trends in the sector. The event ends on Thursday with participants granted 26 hours of continuous medical education.

She said the issues being tackled at the forum include performance evaluation from an Islamic perspective, legislation, information technology, benchmarking of services and medical errors.

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