The Control and Investigation Board has made 123 observations about hospitals and health centers under the Health Ministry after studying poor conditions and services of more than 340 public healthcare institutions, an official report issued by the board said. Shortage of medical, nursing, administrative and technical staff in some hospitals and health centers was one of the major problems observed by the board. "We have noticed the spread of infectious diseases and bacteria among newborn babies due to congestion at hospitals," the report said. The board blamed lack of proper medical care and shortage of medical staff for such dangerous conditions at the Maternity and Children's Hospital in Jeddah. The board noticed shortage of efficient medical staff including doctors and nurses at some government hospitals, especially in the first-aid and emergency sections. "We could not find specialists for social service, mental care, nutrition and naturopathic treatment at some hospitals," the board pointed out. Many of hospitals lack consultancy clinics, evening medical services, maternity healthcare clinics and weekly consultancy clinics. The board also noticed shortage of essential medicine as well as medical appliances and nursing requirements in some hospitals and clinics. "We have seen that the autoclave sterilizers at the operation room of Meesan General Hospital were not working properly." Many doctors and nurses have been found not wearing gloves at times of treating patients, the board pointed out. Some doctors work in more than one hospitals and health centers. The capacity of some public hospitals was less than the requirement of targeted population. "We have also noticed long delay in nurses attending a patient in some hospitals," the report, carried by Al-Madinah Arabic daily. Poor cleanliness, cleaning staff not wearing uniforms, some cleaners not having health certificates, and shortage of security guards, recurrent power cuts and lack of generators at some hospitals are other observations. Resident permits of some foreign workers at public hospitals have been expired while the professions written in the iqamas were different from their actual work. Sponsorship of some of these workers have not been transferred to their hospitals. The board also noticed that some health center managers were foreigners while the managers of some hospitals were not present full time at their organizations. "The contractor for disposing of medical waste at Fifa General Hospital in Jazan has failed to fulfill the terms and conditions of the agreement," the report said. Other observations raised by the board were related to blood banks. It pointed out that some hospitals were not having blood banks while the existing blood banks in other hospitals were in poor condition, said the report.
