PHSSR Saudi Arabia 2025

Health practitioners from over 120 countries work in different clinical and supportive fields, indicating the country’s positioning among the global workforce. The high proportion of non-Saudi healthcare professionals (see Figure 9) can be attributed to several factors. Due to a lack of Saudi professionals historically, the country relied on foreign workers in the healthcare sector. Rapid population growth and an ageing population have also contributed to the demand for more healthcare workers, which has mainly been met by hiring professionals from overseas. In addition, Saudi Arabia’s educational and training infrastructure have not produced enough quali fied healthcare professionals to meet the growing demand, further leading to a reliance on foreign workers to fill the gap. However, the government recognises these challenges and is actively working to address them through its Vision 2030 strategic plan which aims to increase the number of trained Saudi healthcare professionals through initiatives such as the Nitaqat programme, which aim to increase the number of Saudi citizens employed in the private and public sectors (PwC, 2021). Across all sectors of the economy, the government plans to shift the current one-third Saudi-to-foreigner workforce ratio to a two-third ratio by 2030. 45 Sustainability and Resilience in the Saudi Arabian Health System The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience Figure 9: Percentage of domestic and overseas trained healthcare professionals Note: For professionals trained in both domestic and overseas settings, the highest accreditable certi fication was considered. Source: National Centre for Health Workforce Planning, 2021. Solutions and opportunities The Saudi Health Academy was established to ful fil these needs. The aim of the academy is to bridge the job need gap and create health vocational training programmes for the purpose of capacity building and strengthening the competencies of the health workforce in order to raise the efficiency and quality of services provided. It provides career development opportunities to healthcare professionals and offers high-quality healthcare education programmes that focus on competency, ambition, responsibility and excellence. The academy aims to improve patient care outcomes by utilising new techniques and real-world experiences into its educational programmes.As of 2022, 28 programmes were offered and close to 550 individuals were enrolled as active learners in this Academy.