Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH – The Health Ministry said its hospitals in 20 cities could not accept more than 2,000 patients last year due to several reasons including lack of medical equipment and specialized doctors.

Lack of beds, shortage of required service and patients who required specialized treatment that the hospitals were not equipped to provide were among the other reasons.

There were 390 cases when public hospitals had to apologize to patients for not being able to accept them due to the absence of required services, the ministry said, adding that the Northern Border province registered 31 such cases, followed by Hail 29, Bisha 28, Najran 26, Al-Jouf 24, Riyadh 23, Al-Ahsa and Baha 21 each and Taif 21.

Hospitals rejected 516 cases due to non-availability of beds with 50 cases reporting in Jeddah, followed by Makkah 47, Jazan 45, Qassim 44, Madinah 41, Al-Ahsa 36, Qunfudah 33, the Eastern Province 28, Taif 25 and Baha 23, the ministry explained.

In 92 cases, hospitals rejected patients because they were not equipped to treat them, the ministry’s annual report for 2017 said. Hafr Al-Batin reported eight such cases, the Eastern Province, Al-Ahsa and Qurayyat seven cases each, and Riyadh and Tabuk six cases each.

The ministry’s hospitals sent back 342 patients for not having specialized doctors to treat their diseases while they refused to accept 137 patients as they did not require specialized treatment. Eighteen patients were sent back without treatment due to the absence of specialized medical equipment.

Hospitals regretted to accept 505 patients due to absence of required services with Baha and Hafr Al-Batin reporting 34 cases each, Asir and Bisha 33 cases each, Najran 32, Qurayyat 31, Taif 29, Qunfudah and Al-Jouf 28, and Tabuk 25, the report added.