* Saudi Aramco to handle King Abdullah Medical City's new coronavirus center * Patients to be treated in private hospitals at ministry's expense if no beds available Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH – Acting Minister of Health Adel Fakeih has replaced the top management of King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah with a new team. The hospital has been in focus lately due to the spread of coronavirus among its staff. “Due to the need to increase the quality of patient care, the ministry has taken a decisive step to remove the current general manager and his deputy to ensure that the standard of healthcare at King Fahd Hospital is immediately improved,” said a statement issued by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, a copy of which Saudi Gazette has received. The new administration team led by General Manager Dr. Imad Aljahdali and supported by Dr. Hani Jukhdar and Dr. Mohammed Qaroot took charge on Tuesday itself. Fakeih said in the statement that the ministry will not hesitate to take a decisive action if and when needed. Meanwhile, Rasheed Ayoub, the second King Fahd Hospital doctor who recovered from coronavirus, has came back to work. He said that he was able to recover after taking multiple antibiotics and taking natural substances like honey and Nigella sativa seeds (black seeds). In a related development, Saudi Aramco has been assigned the responsibility to prepare the King Abdullah Medical City in Jeddah to accept coronavirus cases, General Manager of Health Affairs in Makkah Region Abdul Salam Wali said at a press conference here on Tuesday. Employees are working around the clock to finalize the medical city to make it ready in the coming few days, he said, adding that private and public hospitals have been asked to send blood samples of suspected coronavirus patients to regional laboratory and if confirmed shift the patient to King Fahd Hospital. These patients will later be transferred to the King Abdullah Medical City. Head of Jeddah Health Affairs Sami Badawood said the ministry takes the responsibility of treating any coronavirus cases at its hospitals and if no beds are available the patients can be moved to private hospitals at the expense of the ministry. He said, the acting minister wants all heads of hospitals to be directly responsible for anti-infection procedures. The ministry has an open budget and is ready 24 hours to meet any demand from health establishments, Badawood said. He said a media council is being set up to answer questions from the media or the public on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. Meanwhile, a source at King Fahd Hospital told Saudi Gazette that they have not received the needed advice from the World Health Organization (WHO) experts who recently visited the hospital. Jeddah has 150 coronavirus cases, 28 of which died which constitutes 30% of fatality, he said. This is a low fatality percentage if compared to other regions, the source said, adding, “We do not want to turn King Fahd Hospital into a corona-center. We are serving over four million patients and have 22 operation rooms.” Meanwhile, a man has died in Jordan after being infected with coronavirus, a media report said on Tuesday, in the country's second fatality from the disease this year and fourth since 2012.
