Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah had to used the help of police to evict 148 patients who refused to leave after they were discharged following treatment.

Quoting a source at the Jeddah Health Affairs, local daily Al-Madina said on Sunday that the patients refused to leave the hospital even though they were discharged from one week to a month ago.

“Though the patients have completed their treatment and were provided with comprehensive care, they refused to leave,” he said.

The source said the patients were adamant on their refusal to leave though they were issued medical reports from treating doctors proving that they have healed and are in good health.

He said the patients were a mixture of expatriates and people with no identities. “There were expatriates from 12 nationalities and 98 people with unknown identities,” he added.

The source said by refusing to leave, the patients were unnecessarily occupying beds. He said this led to disruption of services provided to the sick people, who were denied the chance for hospitalization due to a lack of beds.

The source did not explain why the patients refused to leave but said the hospital management informed the Al-Sharafiyah police station about the case and sought their help to evict the healed patients by force and hand them over to the Passport Department for deportation.

According to the source, the expatriate patients consisted of 21 Yemenis, nine Egyptians, four Pakistanis, two Bangladeshis, three Sudanese, three Ethiopians, two Chadians, two Indians and one each from Indonesia, Palestine, Myanmar and Syria.