Elham Al-Jafar Al-Sharq A young man sustained head injuries, trauma and a fractured thigh in a road accident. The real tragedy, however, began when he was rushed by ambulance to a nearby private hospital where he was provided with first aid and treated for his head injuries. A medical report was issued explaining that the patient should undergo surgery on his thigh. This is when the torture began. The patient's father could not afford to pay the hospital bill and so had to have him transferred to a government hospital. This is because the Ministry of Health will only bear the costs of medical treatment for a Saudi citizen if treated in a government hospital. In this particular scenario, the young man had to be taken to a government hospital an hour away. When the father arrived at the hospital, he was shocked to learn that the hospital did not have enough beds. Despite his attempts to convince the hospital and express his indignation, no one seemed to care about treating his son's serious injuries. He was told to take his son back to the private hospital. Then the father discovered that the company his son worked for offered its employees medical insurance. Here another drama began to unfold. The father had to obtain letters from the Traffic Department and the police stating that the patient had not forfeited his rights as a victim. Until these letters were obtained, the patient had to wait and continue to suffer as he was unable to use the toilet without assistance and in fact was in pain every time he visited the bathroom. This might seem like a good script for a movie, but this was not a movie; it was the tragedy of a young man who could have died because his body was not being treated for the serious injuries sustained in a road accident. This case is just one of many. The question is whether the new health minister will work to amend the existing rules and regulations and then enforce them.
