15 December 2005 – The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that while the number of Filipino female nurses in Saudi Arabia is apparently declining, that of the male is on the rise.
 
Quoting official sources, Ambassador Bahnarim A. Guinomla disclosed that in  2003, only 13 visas were granted to male nurses. In 2004, this jumped to 100 visas and during the current year 152 visas were issued to male nurses.
 
Visas issued to female nurses in 2003 numbered 1395. This shot up to 2288 last year and went down to 1641 during the current year.  The report, however, did not indicate the cut-off month for the current year.
 
The figures for male technicians also showed an upward trend with 27 visas given in 2003, 124 last year and 188 during the present year.
 
Correspondingly, the number for female technicians pointed to the opposite direction with 267 working visas issued in 2003, 642 in 2004 and 540 for the present year.
 
Ambassador Guinomla sent the statistics to the Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies of the National Institute of Health, University of the Philippines in Manila, which is participating in a collaborative study with the World Health Organization, World Bank and other international institutions on “The International Recruitment of Nurses”. END