Salmaniya nursing Bahrainisation may take 10 years: Jalahma

TDT | Manama

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Bahrainising the nursing workforce at Salmaniya Medical Complex could take between five and 10 years, according to Government Hospitals chief executive Mariam Al Jalahma.

He told Parliament yesterday that the pace is tied to a simple gap in numbers: there are more than 1,500 non-Bahraini nurses in post, while Bahrain produces only about 200 Bahraini nursing graduates each year.

She said that made a full handover far slower at Salmaniya than at health centres, where the smaller staff base made the first wave of replacement far easier to carry out.

At the kingdom’s main public hospital, the scale is different. Any shift, she said, has to be phased and thought through with care.

Al Jalahma said the plan also counts on natural retirement as part of the changeover.