Medical center fails to issue expat child’s birth note, Health Affairs takes action

JEDDAH — The Jeddah Health Affairs has stopped all electronic services for a private medical center for refusing to issue the birth notification for an expatriate child for more than five years. Mohammed Abdul Rahman, the child’s father, said as a result, he could not issue his son with a birth certificate or complete other legal procedures including the addition of his son to his residency permit or register him in school. Abdul Rahman said his wife gave birth at the medical center more than five years ago but the center has not issued him the birth notification, which is a must for obtaining the birth certificate from the Civil Affairs. The father said he complained several times to the Health Affairs but to no avail. An official at the medical center said they kept records of all births at the center and the release of any document required permission from the official in charge of documents and data at the Health Affairs. Spokesman for Jeddah Health Affairs Abdullah Al-Ghamdi said the father lodged a complaint in February this year and investigations proved that his wife had given birth to a boy Sept. 7, 2011. The spokesman said the woman was rushed to the medical center when she developed labor pains because there were no hospitals close by and the father worried that she might give birth on the way. He said the Health Affairs asked the center to submit all birth notifications as per rules and regulations but the center refused to acquiesce. The spokesman said they subsequently stopped all electronic services from the center until it submitted all notifications of births that took place at the center. Al-Ghamdi did not name the center but said the electronic services would only be resumed after the center handed over the documents.