Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – Saudi Arabia will appoint 100 Saudi females as the first batch of paramedics by the end of this year, according to Al-Riyadh newspaper on Sunday. The new paramedics who are receiving training will be assigned to locations restricted to men. This move comes with several deaths that occurred because male paramedics could not freely enter the accident scenes such as schools for girls. In Riyadh, a university student died recently because the guards delayed the entry of male paramedics to the campus. The batch comprises female nurses and other specialists will get emergency medicine diploma before starting their work, General Director of Women Section and the Red Crescent Dr Muneera Al-Mazro told the newspaper. “We have 3,000 volunteers who will join the program in the future,” she said. Last year, the Health and Environment Committee of the Shoura Council had recommended that women should be appointed in paramedical services. The committee also proposed that women should get be trained in ambulance and paramedical services through foreign scholarships and by establishing a training center in the Kingdom. It also proposed the creation of an independently-run ambulance service with the help of the government and private health sectors. It also recommended that the number of paramedical staff should be increased and services should be improved by forming more ambulance teams and increasing the number of ambulances.
