MOH asked to give SR28m in unpaid rent to hospital owner

Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH – The administrative court in Jeddah issued a preliminary verdict asking the Ministry of Health to pay SR28 million to a doctor who owned a private hospital and rented the facility to turn it into a quarantine hospital during the swine flu epidemic four years. According to the ruling, the Health Affairs in Jeddah rented the building, which was owned and designed by a private hospital, at an annual rent of SR7 million, but the Ministry did not pay the rent for four years. The ministry said in a response to the court that it had asked the hospital owner to reduce the rent to SR5.3 million, the amount approved by the Ministry of Finance. But the owner presented the court with a memorandum in which he explained that he had received an earlier judgment in his favor. He said the court had accepted the rental amount agreed upon two years ago and also compelled the ministry to return SR2.5 million he had spent on refurbishing the building. The owner rejected the Ministry of Finance›s evaluation, saying it was non-binding according to the correspondence between him and the Ministry of Health. The court concluded after 24 months of deliberations that the ministry needed to adhere to the terms of the initial rental contract, pointing out that the estimate of the Ministry of Finance did not result in the consent of the owner. The Ministry of Health has decided to appeal the verdict.