AL-JOUF: Dissatisfied with the quality of public heath care, Saudis living in the northern region of the country resort to scrimping, saving and borrowing money to pay out-of-pocket for medical treatment in neighboring Jordan.

According to a report in yesterday’s Al-Riyadh newspaper, approximately 23,000 Saudis, most of them living in the border cities of Arar, Al-Jouf, Sakaka, Qurayat and Rafha, sought treatment in Jordan.

The report said one of the reasons for this exodus was the lack of satisfactory care in the north.

“I took my mother to an eye hospital in Sakaka months ago. After two days she started feeling dizzy. I took her back again to the hospital where they told me that she must stay because she had suffered from a stroke,” said Battal Al-Ruwaili, who took out a massive loan to charter a flight to Jordan for his ailing mother after King Fahd Hospital in Riyadh was unable to schedule an appointment for months. Once in Jordan, medical staff said the diagnosis and medication for the man’s mother were wrong.

“I could not afford the medical expenses,” said Al-Ruwaili. “I was forced to borrow a lot of money, which I will deal with later.”

Salah Al-Shamari, from Al-Jouf, said his father was treated in a government hospital in the region that lacked major health facilities. Subsequently, he blames the lack of services for his father’s stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body on the fifth day of his admission to the hospital. “I requested to transfer my father to a bigger hospital in Riyadh, but all the hospitals said that they were full,” said Al-Shamari.

“I tried to take him to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh at my own expense but they were full too. I was forced to borrow money to rent an ambulance and to take him to Jordan for treatment. In Jordan, his condition improved.”

Al-Shamari says the Ministry of Health needs to pay attention to the problem. “Why is the northern region neglected?” he said.