JEDDAH — Doctors and paramedical staff at mental health hospitals in various regions of the Kingdom occasionally come under attack and are even threatened with murder at the hands of patients, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Health.
Dr. Abdul Hameed Al-Habeeb, director general of mental health and community service at the ministry, cited some examples of such attacks by mentally deranged people, Al-Watan newspaper reported. “A nurse was assaulted by patient at the emergency unit of a mental health hospital while another was attacked by an inpatient, incapacitating one of the sensory organs of the nurse,” he said.
The senior ministry official admitted this comes at a time when there is a growing demand from doctors and paramedics of mental health hospitals to take necessary legal measures for their protection in the wake of rising cases of attacks.
They demanded quick implementation of the Mental Healthcare Law, approved by the Council of Ministers in July 2014, with inclusion of necessary provisions to ensure their safety and security, apart from an increase in their risk allowance disbursed by the ministry.
Dr. Mohsen Al-Hazmi, member of the health committee at the Shoura Council, said that the Ministry of Health is yet to come out with the executive regulations for the law, which is supposed to have been implemented after 180 days of issuance.
Al-Hazmi said the law, which was passed by the Shoura Council before presenting it to the Cabinet for approval, consists mainly of the rights and duties of mental patients and not that of doctors and paramedics. Dr. Muhammad Shawush, a consultant psychiatrist, said that the law does not have any provisions to ensure the safety of doctors and paramedical staff working at the mental hospitals.
“The law mainly focuses on the rights and duties of mentally sick people and ignores the rights of doctors and paramedical staff. The ministry is satisfied with giving only risk allowance to the hospital staffers,” he said. Shawush underlined the need for drawing up a raft of measures to ensure safety of those working in this field.
“There have been rising cases of such attacks not only by mentally ill people but also by drug addicts. The law for security and safety at mental health hospitals gives protection only to inpatients and hospital equipment and infrastructure,” he said.
Echoing the same view, Dr. Sameera Al-Ghamdi, a psychiatry specialist, suggested there should be an effective mechanism to monitor inpatients at mental hospitals and give protection to hospital staffers.
As of 2013, there were 25 mental health hospitals with 3,690 beds and 92 specialized mental health clinics in the Kingdom. More than 600 doctors and thousands of paramedical staff, including Saudis and expatriates, are working there.
