This document is intended as a set of ideas and requirements for data practitioners to work with SCFHS data in the way of workforce analysis and, consequently, planning. Expected outcomes are KPIs, analytical metrics, forecasting models, data marts and analytical dashboards that will give the viewer a 360 vision of medical practitioner’s workforce.
The number and mix of professions, the skills needed by the different professions and the range of healthcare services pose complex challenges for those who deal with healthcare practitioners and perform relevant analysis, which will be addressed below in respective sections of the document.
Background
Qualified manpower provisioning is one of the biggest challenges for Saudi Arabia these days. Considerable investments are being made in education, and still foreign healthcare workers constitute the vital part of medical workforce in the Kingdom.
Saudi nationals’ proportion is just a half of all 🏥
@Health workforce
, and less than a third of all physicians in the health system. Other challenges are a significant underrepresentation of females (apart from nursing); high turnover of practitioners, competition between public and private hospitals. The last but not least are skill imbalances and access issues.
In most cases the treatment of the above mentioned is simple yet effective: heavy investments in education in medical, nursing, and other specialties; development of a health workforce planning model that needs to adopt appropriate strategies that reflect all aspects including the number, skills, gender distribution and other critical parameters. This is required to meet the future needs of a healthcare and population and facilitate achievement of Vision 2030.
Purpose of the workforce planning
The ultimate goal of the
@Workforce planning
is to achieve a balance and optimize the gap between
@Workforce demand
and supply for both a short-term and a long-term outlook with regard to the different groups of healthcare workers. For this to be achieved, there must be a clear definition of the supply and demand, categories of healthcare professionals must be also introduced, and the components of the supply should be defined along with the factors driving population growth in Saudi Arabia.