The Emergency Department at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia sees more than 40,000 patient visits per year (equivalent to between 100 and 150 visits per day). Approximately 30% of patients are pediatric and the department has Pediatric Emergency Medicine coverage 24 hours per day.

Because the King Faisal is the primary tertiary referral centre in Saudi Arabia, it receives interesting and varied emergency medical problems, some of which you probably have not seen before and probably won’t see again. Areas of practice include: oncology, cardiology, transplant medicine, neurology, and genetic and metabolic diseases. The King Faisal is an inner city hospital, and sees very little trauma.

The department has about 20 Emergency Medicine doctors on staff. Shifts are a minimum of double coverage, and many shifts (e.g. late morning to late evening shifts) have triple coverage. Permanent physicians work 16 eight-hour shifts per month, and overtime is available. Locum physicians work 18 eight-hour shifts per month.

Prior to offering a permanent one- or two-year contract, the hospital invites doctors for a one-month locum. This provides an opportunity to see the hospital, the department, Riyadh, and Saudi Arabia before making a long-term commitment.