Saeed Al-Suraihi

Okaz

The Ministry of Health is in the news again but not for accidentally swapping two newborn babies and giving the wrong one to the wrong parents. This time, the ministry swapped two bodies and gave the wrong one to the wrong family.



If discovering that two babies were accidentally swapped is possible after many years, discovering a swapped body is impossible even if it was only a few hours later. Just like medical mistakes “disappearing” with people's death, the issue of swapped bodies will also be swept underground. The Ministry of Health has the right to consider swapping two bodies a big deal. It will even say that it was hospital morgue staffers who discovered the swap and not the family.



Columnists in the Kingdom should thank the ministry for giving them stuff to write about. We even came to the conclusion that if the ministry gets its act together, we will have nothing to write about anymore.



The ministry is giving writers a wide range of ideas to write about, ideas that prompt readers to race to the newsstands so they can read about them. I am sure that the “news” that comes out of the ministry will be on the thesis of some PhD student titled “The impact of news from the Ministry of Health on Saudi journalism.”



Through its hospitals and health centers all over the Kingdom, the Ministry of Health has managed to provide us with countless stories of medical mistakes and disasters that start from swapped babies and ends with swapped bodies. The ministry does not only diversify its news and events, but it makes sure that each area, province, city and village will get their share of medical mistakes stories.