By Saad Al-Ghanmi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

TAIF — The general hospital in Rania governorate, northeast of Taif, was totally paralyzed for more than seven hours after it suffered power outage on Saturday. The long hours without electricity disrupted the water supply and affected patients admitted to the hospital, forcing many of them to leave the hospital and others to be transferred to other hospitals in Bisha and Al-Khurma.

Many residents complained of the bad services at the hospital, which caters to the residents of a big governorate like Rania.

Fahd Al-Subaie, a resident in Rania, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that their suffering with the poor health services provided at the hospital had no end.

He said the hospital is very small in size and the staff lacked qualifications.

«Power outages are nothing new in this hospital; it happens quite often. Whenever there is no power, there is no water. Patients need water to use the bathroom,» he said.

Al-Subaie said medicines were dispensed to patients when it is dark inside the pharmacy.

«What if a mix-up occurred and a patient given the wrong medicines,» he asked.

He said Rania needs a hospital with a capacity of at least 200 beds to serve the towns and villages in the governorate and the adjoining areas.

Saudi businessman Muhammad Al-Subaie said this problem was continuing for many years. «Every time there is a problem like this, we hear empty promises from the health affairs. We are not getting quality medical care. In reality, the medical services are deteriorating. In the whole hospital, there is only one internist who treat male patients in the morning and women during the evening,» he added.

Muhammad Bin Fulayyan said the hospital in Rania made residents of the governorate and surrounding areas suffer greatly. The people complained continuously to the health affairs over the bad state of the health services but nothing happened, he said, adding that the patients from Rania have now become a burden on nearby hospitals such as King Abdullah Hospital in Bisha and the hospitals in Taif.

The official spokesman of the health affairs in Taif, Abdul Hadi Al-Rabie, said a medical team was deployed to conduct maintenance on the emergency generators at the hospital. He said there was nothing to worry about.