KSA Health Ministry’s Foreign Nurses with 10-yr Service Face Layoffs

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health has announced a plan to localize nursing jobs across all its facilities, the Saudi Gazette reports.

The ministry directed its administrative units, the ministry indicated that working contracts of foreign nurses serving at least 10 years in the country will be terminated. However, specialists in hemodialysis, emergency and ICU medicine will be retained as no local replacements are immediately available. The localization plan also does not apply to nurses working for primary healthcare centers located in remote areas unless suitable Saudi replacement is found.

The ministry’s order has been made obligatory for administrative units to strictly abide by these guidelines.

A source said the ministry plans to localize 300 senior nursing positions in the next three years. It also added that a new generation of qualified Saudi locals are capable of taking over jobs currently held by foreigners.

Filipinos have dominated the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia for decades. There are approximately 133,000 Filipino nurses who work in both private and public hospitals across the country. About 90 per cent of them are females.

‘Sagip Migrante’, a monitoring and assistance campaign launched only Friday by Migrante chapters in Saudi Arabia has monitored the termination of 39 Filipino workers from their jobs with the addition of six nurses working at the Saudi Ministry of Health.