Bahrain has 25,000 licensed health professionals including 13,558 nurses: report

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Bahrain has already licensed 25,000 health professionals including 13,558 nurses in its attempt to provide the best of healthcare services, according to a top health regulatory official. 

National Health Regulatory Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Mariam Al Jalahma said the Kingdom’s health sector also licensed 4,727 doctors,  1,145 dentists, 1,702 pharmacists along with 3,944 health professionals specialized in various areas.  

This information was revealed as the authority launched its annual report. She hailed the services of these licensed professionals in the fight against Covid. The official confirmed that the authority has been consistently supervising and regulating the health sector in line with the government’s goal of providing safe health services through public and private sectors.  

She said the authority contributed towards the national efforts to contain the spread of virus while ensuring that the supply of vaccines and medicines remained intact. Dr Mariam expressed thanks and appreciation to His Majesty, HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister for the unlimited support towards the health sector. 

She said the authority was quick to approve seven vaccines against Covid-19 with Bahrain becoming the first country in the world to approve all seven vaccines instantly.  The authority also successfully implemented the setting up of two special isolation facilities for positive cases and 77 facilities for suspected cases along with 42 PCR laboratories.  

“It supervised all inspection campaigns to ensure the implementation of health precautions issued by national teams to confront the virus.”  The CEO explained that the authority launched a new electronic licensing service to speed up the licensing process.   

The Health Professions Regulatory Division completed 3,478 new licensing applications, 10,783 renewals while a total of 1,889 specialists took the licensing exam, with an overall success rate of 69 per cent.

The CEO indicated that the authority supported the health system by licensing health care facilities and pharmacies. 

By the end of 2021, the Health Institutions Regulation Department had authorised a total of 118 new applications to open health care facilities in various specialties, ranging from hospitals to health centers, and had issued 80 licenses for new health care facilities. 

The department succeeded in licensing 28 governmental primary health care centers and renewing the licenses of 689 health facilities.  The Pharmaceutical Regulatory Division licensed a total of 78 new pharmacies in 2021, of which eight were opened within healthcare facilities and 70 independent ones. 

According to Dr Mariam, this is an increase of 16 per cent compared to the number of licensed pharmacies in the year 2020. As of now, the total number of licensed pharmacies in Bahrain stands at 396, of which 317 operate as independent public pharmacies and 79 operate within healthcare facilities. 

Twenty licence applications for alternative medical facilities were approved by the authority. The number of health professionals licensed in various fields of alternative medicine reached 95. 

Dr Mariam highlighted the cooperation with the Indian Embassy in organising licensing exams for alternative medicine specialists. 

Owing to increased interest in investing in the growing healthcare industry in Bahrain, Dr Mariam explained that the authority, through the Investors Office of the National Human Resources Regulatory Authority, was keen to provide guidance and assistance to investors in addition to providing advice and facilitating procedures.

The office received 31 inquiries about various healthcare investments from the GCC, Europe and Asia markets. “Ten per cent of inquiries were about opening hospitals, 58pc about opening medical centers, and 32pc about pharmaceutical and medical device companies. 

The office is closely linked with the Economic Development Board, the Labour Market Regulatory Authority and the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) to provide support to new investors.”