The director of Health Affairs of Jeddah said private hospitals are responsible for 72 percent of the complaints sent to the Ministry of Health. “The rate of the complaints against the private hospitals represents 72% of the total complaints submitted to the ministry. A majority of these complaints refer to medical errors,” said Sami Badawood, director of Health Affairs of Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. Badawood said the complaints do not mean the quality of private hospitals in Jeddah is poor because the ministry sets several levels of quality which a hospital much agree to meet before a license is issued. He attributed the increase in the medical errors in private hospitals to several factors such as patients not being fully diagnosed before an operation. In Jeddah he said there are 37 licensed private hospitals, 106 polyclinics, 96 private clinics and 73 medical complexes. He said private hospitals recruit their medical staff after being licensed by the Saudi Council for Health Specialties. He said treatment fees in private hospitals are not uniform and are set by the quality of the service which is why prices vary in many private hospitals. A health administration expert who declined to give his name attributed the high percentage of medical errors in private hospitals to poor and unprofessional monitoring of these institutions by health officials.
