DUBAI // The Middle East's first website dedicated to advertising jobs in health care goes online this week. The website, www.dothealthjobs.com, is to be launched during the Arab Health Congress, which starts on Monday at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. "Healthcare recruitment in the Middle East can be a complex process because the majority of positions are filled with medical professionals coming from outside the region," said Amit Chopra, the website's online sales manager.
"For the employer it allows human resources to review candidates themselves as opposed to going through an agent in a far-off country. For health professionals, it gives them direct access to specific jobs available that meet their skill set, and again, they can do this without going through a third party." Health services in the Middle East rely heavily on migrant workers, an issue that needs to be carefully managed to make sure they are protected, said Dr Mubashar Sheikh, the executive director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance.
"Ethical considerations and practices need to be undertaken by recruiting agencies to protect the rights of the health worker and to ensure this type of recruitment does not have adverse effects on the countries exporting health workers." He said the World Health Organisation was developing a global code of practice for the international recruitment of health care workers. "With medical professionals trained in different parts of the world, the quality of health care is often varied," said Brian de Francesca, chief executive of Tawam Hospital in Al Ain.
"Many patients feel that treatment at one hospital differs substantially from the treatment they would receive at another hospital." Recent changes to nursing regulations have seen long-serving nurses replaced in favour of more recently trained staff, many of whom come from India, the Philippines and other countries in South East Asia. "World-class health care requires not only world-class buildings and equipment but world-class personnel," Mr de Francesca said.
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