Evacuation notice puts KFH staff in a quandary

JEDDAH – The management of King Fahd Hospital (KFH) here has sent evacuation notices to many of its technical and administrative employees, asking them and their families, a total of 200 family members, to evacuate the residential units of the residential complex located close to the hospital, Al-Madinah daily reported. The employees told Al-Madina that they were shocked to receive the evacuation notices, which they did not expect since they moved to the complex after fulfilling the Health Ministry’s requirements and some of them had to wait for years before moving in. Besides, some of them paid as much as SR80,000 for renovation and repairs inside the units when they moved in for the first time. The notices did not give a clear reason why they should evacuate the property. The employees also said the Health Ministry does not pay them any housing allowance and that the hospital cuts off 10 percent of their salaries for property maintenance. The employees described the decision as unfair and taken without any prior planning because it did not take into consideration the fact that the employees who live in these units serve patients. Some of them said the management asked them to evacuate because it wants to give these units to doctors so that it can stop paying them any housing allowance. But this is still a rumor that has not been confirmed. The employees also said there are around 80 apartments that have not been used and wondered why the management does not restore these units and use them for accommodation purposes. If the management makes them evacuate, the life of some of them might get disrupted because they have kids who go to nearby schools. Al-Madinah contacted the Jeddah Health Affairs spokesman and the Health Ministry’s spokesman but they did not respond.