Jazan hospital under fire for poor services

A handout image provided by the directorate of the Saudi Civil Defence shows firefighters checking the damage inside the Jazan General Hospital after a blaze broke out in the intensive care unit and the maternity department on December 24, 2015 in the kingdom's south Jizan province. (AFP)

JEDDAH: Jazan General Hospital is in the eye of a storm, not over the fire that had engulfed it in December last year claiming 24 lives but because of poor health services.
The complaints started a long time ago, with many voicing their concerns over lack of facilities and indifferent attitude of the medical staff in the hospital, a local newspaper has reported.
Those affected have demanded immediate solutions to their problems, which they described as “clear carelessness in relation to their health and lives.”
One patient was quoted as saying that very short time is dedicated for examining patients. “These examinations are done inaccurately and without following a number of standard procedures, such as measuring blood pressure or body temperature.”
A complaint stated that most of the time, doctors at the hospital send patients to other hospitals not less than 25 km away on the pretext of lack of specialists to diagnose the case accurately.
A patient suffering from acute kidney pain was reportedly very angry because he “did not receive any kind of treatment at the Jazan General Hospital.” The man, according to the report, was forced to go to Prince Mohammad bin Nasser Hospital for treatment around 4 a.m.
In another case, the report said, a young woman insisted on meeting the director of the hospital, saying that her mother suffered complications with her eye surgery, but a doctor started giving her medication without bothering to know her medical history.
Nabil Issa Ghawi, head of media relations at the Jazan Health Department, told the newspaper that the department in the region works hard to serve the community and provide integrated health services.
“Jazan General Hospital is always the center of attention for the competent authorities in the province that supervise the hospital’s functioning. This includes securing the location, conducting studies and allocating services to a number of hospitals and health centers in the area, not to mention the issue of activating the emergency centers that should operate around the clock,” he added.