Three hospitals in Jeddah refused to admit a Saudi woman in labor Thursday claiming that there were no vacant beds or child incubators available. The lack of sufficient facilities at the three public hospitals left the father of the woman, who had spent ten hours trying to find a facility able to take her, being forced to sell his wife's jewelry to cover the deposit at a private hospital. Now the Directorate of Health Affairs says it may cover the costs of the hospital's bill. Sami Badaud, Director of the Health Affairs Directorate in Jeddah, said that if inquiries showed that there were indeed no vacant beds and incubators on the day the woman gave birth the Ministry of Health would pay the private hospital bill in accordance with ministry's instructions. Hamdan Al-Bakri collected his daughter who was suffering from labor pains on Thursday evening and rushed her to a public hospital where she was examined by a gynecologist and told to come back three hours later. Upon their return in the early morning hours they were told by the same doctor that there were no available beds or incubators. Al-Bakri then took his daughter to the Children's Hospital in the Al-Azizyia district where the emergency doctor also apologized for the lack of beds, and a subsequent trip to the Educational Hospital at King Abdul Aziz University yielded the same results. Al-Bakri then requested that the doctor refer his daughter to a private section where patients are charged nominal fees, but again, a lack of beds left him unable to do so. After 10 hours spent driving from one hospital to another and with his daughter now in a critical condition, Al-Bakri saw no other solution than to admit his daughter into a private hospital and sell his wife's jewelry to cover the costs. Al-Bakri appealed to officials at the Ministry of Health to find a solution to the shortage of beds and incubators in public hospitals. He says he could have lost his daughter due to complications developed during the ten-hour search for a hospital. Badaud has now asked Al-Bakri to contact him at the directorate in Jeddah to complete formalities for payment of the hospital bill.
