By Adnan Al-Shabrawi Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — A specialized committee consisting of the Ministry of Health and Bureau of Public Prosecution is looking into 23 violations and penal crimes committed by health practitioners. Last week, the committee decided to divide the investigation into the violations between the Violations Committee under the Ministry of Health and the Bureau of Public Prosecution. Crimes that result in fines and imprisonment were given to the Bureau of Public Prosecution to investigate the case and issue sentence. Violations that do not result in penal punishment will be handled by the Violations Committee under the Ministry of Health. The bureau will be looking into 14 of the crimes and violations committed and the ministry will be looking into nine violations. The bureau will be looking into health practitioners operating without a license from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, providing incorrect information during the license issuance process, falsely advertising the practitioner’s credentials, impersonating a certified and licensed health practitioner, using or owning health equipment without being licensed to do so and performing medical operations and diagnoses that are prohibited in the Kingdom. Other crimes under the bureau also include failing to report of a penal crime inflicted on a patient to the authorities, hiring unlicensed health practitioners or practitioners working outside of their specialties, using prohibited medical equipment, ending the life of a patient due to his weak health condition with or without the relatives’ permission, issuing a medical report of the patient’s death when the cause of death was a penal crime, performing abortion on a pregnant woman without legitimate reasons, performing experimental operations on humans, selling human organs and transplanting a human organ obtained from the black market. The other violations handled by the Ministry of Health Violations Committee are the refusal of a health practitioner to take on a patient without a legitimate reason, operating outside of the health practitioner’s specialties, discriminating against or harming the careers of coworkers and other health practitioners, stealing another practitioner’s patients, pharmacists issuing medicine that is not prescribed by a doctor and non-specialists selling medicine.