SAUDI ARABIA: It’s Not Just in the Numbers

. JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia / Arab News / March 22, 2008: Sobhi is a pensioner, barely able to get by on his meager monthly stipend. Living with his wife and one middle-aged disabled son, Sobhi has to spend a significant portion of his income on medical bills every month, leaving him and his family often very little to scrape through. Although he uses government hospitals and facilities, nothing is free these days, he tells me. “If you want good doctors, you have to pay money. The doctors at these facilities just write you up medicine without a thorough diagnosis, leaving the patient very insecure about their health status,” he states. “And what about the medicine? Now we have to bring our own injections and other medicines to the hospital for the doctor to administer it. What is the use of these hospitals if the patients cannot afford private hospital services, and are left wanting? I find it extremely difficult to manage my budget, when such a large chunk of it goes to medical treatments every month.” “We keep hearing and reading that the Health Ministry is building bigger and better hospitals in every city, and yet I wonder why they just don’t improve the services and hospital care in existing ones. The quality of physician and nursing care in some of these government— run health facilities is no better than veterinarian services.” “Sometimes, the staff is incredibly rude and hostile. Recently, when my wife experienced such behavior from an Asian nurse, she gently inquired from her as to the reason behind her actions. After some time, the nurse explained that the labor recruiting company who had employed and brought them to this country then changed all the terms of their employment contracts. Their salaries were re-adjusted downward, their housing conditions were pitiful, and they were often not paid for months in a row. That’s why some nurses took it out on the patients. They just think that all Saudis are like that.” I’ve got to agree with Sobhi on one thing, and that is our ministerial obsession with numbers. Just the other day I read the following in this very paper: “As part of an ambitious SR3 billion plan to expand the Kingdom’s health care facilities, Minister of Health Dr. Hamad Al-Manie signed a number of agreements that include the building of three major hospitals.” Among the new projects are a 200-bed hospital in Al-Ahsa at a cost of SR204 million, and two 100-bed hospitals at a cost of SR173 million in Al-Laith on the Red Sea coast north of Jeddah and at Mekhawah in the Baha region. Part of the money would be used to install computer systems in some 50 hospitals and 300 health care centers. The ministry, according to the report, has started work on building accommodation for nurses at an overall cost of SR370 million. There are over 320 government and private hospitals in Saudi Arabia with 46,840 beds. To this should be added nearly 4,000 clinics owned and operated by Saudis and foreigners. Hospitals in the Kingdom — both governmental and private — currently employ over 31,402 doctors, 6,218 of them Saudi. These hospitals also employ some 66,493 nurses and pharmacies. The Kingdom currently provides a hospital bed for every 457 people and a doctor for every 673 people. As reported by this paper, “These new projects comes within the framework of the Ministry of Health’s efforts to provide the best health care service to Saudi citizens and expatriates in every part of the Kingdom,” said Al-Manie, speaking after the signing ceremony on Wednesday. Flash those numbers to Sobhi, who’d quickly tell you they don’t mean anything. At least not to him. Tariq A. Al-Maeena Copyright: Arab News © 2003