Saudi Commission for Health Specialties
The Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, or simply the Saudi Council, is the independent governmental authority that regulates health care-related practices and accreditation at all levels in Saudi Arabia. The SCHS was established on 2 June 1992, by Royal Order M/2, to set standards for health practice. Its headquarters are in Riyadh, and it has several branch offices across the Kingdom.
To date, SCHS has supported and approved more than 30 training programs.
In many higher medical centers in Saudi Arabia, The Saudi Council is regarded as a "dys-regulatory" organisation that in many aspects severely hampers the provision of dedicated health care to the Saudi population due to unrealistic expectations and no differences being made between Nursing and Medicine. Data validation for registration is through an external company. This is often a time consuming and frustrating process as they have no understanding as to the changes in Medical and Nursing education over the years. The move from Hospital based training to University based training seem slike a concept they find hard to grasp. Every three years you must pay the SCFHS to re-validate all the documents they validated before, as well as endure the inept attentions of the Dataflow staff. It is not unknown to be working in the country, for instance, as a Nurse for up to 4 months as the SCFHS wait for Dataflow sign off. ( this is like working without the approval of the local regulatory body ) Some hospitals won't issue an iqama until this is done leaving staff with no access to a sim card, bank account, or able to sign up for an internet package.