Makkah hospital director fired

JEDDAH: The General Directorate of Health Affairs in Makkah has sacked the director of King Faisal Hospital in the city.
Also fired were the director of medical services, the director of support and the director of the emergency department following the investigation conducted into a sepsis case involving an unidentified 12-year-old girl in the hospital’s emergency department.
Makkah Health Affairs came out with a followup statement to an earlier one, saying the dead child was brought to the emergency department of King Faisal Hospital in Makkah on the 26th of Ramadan, around 7 p.m. by a private vehicle.
The statement said that the examination of the body showed that the child was dead half an hour before she was brought to the hospital.
Her mother confirmed that the child’s breathing stopped half an hour earlier at home before she was brought to the hospital.
Examination also revealed that the child was suffering from birth defects and the death was due to natural causes.
The child’s family was notified of the importance of completing the regulatory procedures, such as bringing the diagnosis forms and a photo of the child’s identity and the other procedures so the girl could be transferred to the Makkah Maternity & Children's Hospital but they refrained from doing all the necessary procedures and the deceased child was moved to another department for the dead, pending the response of the parents.
The acting director of the hospital, while passing by the department, smelled unpleasant odor emitting from the room where the body of the child was kept. The hospital management was informed immediately and the body was moved to the morgue in Al-Muaiseem district.
Director-General of Health Affairs in Makkah Dr. Mustafa Baljon ordered the formation of an ad hoc committee, composed of the hospital management, emergency and crises departments, the forensic and quality and internal control departments and the legal affairs, to investigate the incident and fix responsibility for the incident.
As per the minutes of the committee meeting, the committee decided to fire the director general of the hospital in addition to the medical services and support directors and the emergency department director.
All health practitioners involved in the incident were referred to the commission for determining violation of professional norms and imposing regulatory punishments.
Makkah Health Affairs said all necessary measures and procedures were taken to ensure that such an incident is not repeated in the future.