Sources have said that “higher authorities” are close to issuing a ruling banning all health workers in universities from working in the private sector, a move they say the Ministry of Higher Education is seeking to block.
The sources said that the ministry believes the decision, which was backed by a recent meeting of the Health Services Council and now requires final approval from above, will have an “adverse affect on the educational process, with outstanding doctors leaving universities to join the private sector”.
The Ministry of Higher Education, they said, is further concerned that patients will suffer if they are denied the attention of university staff, as will outside clinics and laboratories where teaching staff also habitually acquire experience and practice.
“The ministry is also concerned that it could lose able staff from medicine faculties, and that this would affect education standards, particularly with the number of medical faculties on the increase,” the sources said.
“The Ministry of Higher Education has begun making overtures to try and stop the ban coming in.”
Current regulations permit medicine faculty doctors to work in the private sector in part-time consultancy, a “privilege granted by law” that would be denied to them if the ban is introduced, the sources said.
ADIL AL-OTAIBI
Okaz/Saudi Gazette