Fahd Health Center in Jeddah needs to be shut down because efforts to upgrade the aging building have been unsuccessful, according to staff and patients, but the building will stay open until another hospital is built, an official said. The Ministry of Health has admitted that the building is too old and is no longer useful for receiving patients. A tour made by Okaz/Saudi Gazette of the building showed that there is a drastic shortage in medical and administration staff and that workers use their personal computers for official work. Some workers said the cleaning company contracted by the hospital has not paid female cleaners for several months, which has led some employees to make donations to help the cleaners meet their essential needs and continue to work there. Dr. Sami Badawood, Director of Health Affairs in Jeddah, said the hospital is listed among the aging buildings in the Governorate and noted that it will stay open until it is replaced, according to the Ministry of Health plans. “The ministry's plans focus on introducing changes in the aging health care buildings unless the ministry finds the necessary land on which the new centers will be built.” Dr. Ahmad Hamza, Assistant Deputy Director of Health Affairs for Primary Health Care, declined to comment on the situation and said he was abiding by instructions of Dr. Noha Dashash, assistant director of Health Affairs for Primary Medical Care. An official at the center, who said it was constructed in 1986 and renovated in 2007, believes it would be wasteful to try to improve it and that there are other medical facilities in that area too old to upgrade. “The building is aging and any effort to maintain it would yield nothing,” the official said. “This is not the only aging center; there are three more run down centers.” The official said some elements of the buildings layout are causing problems. “Believe it or not, the files room is found in the ladies section so male employees have great difficulty in getting patients' files and have to ask female colleague to retrieve them. This led the center's director to assign the archive's employee to another job in order to benefit from his service.” Umm Ahmad, a service seeker, said the hospital is not clean and there are not enough people working there. “The center embodies negligence and total absence of hygiene, especially in the toilets, and there are no employees working in the reception to help patients,” he said. Some employees claim that an official threatened to discipline them if they object to a transfer to King Saud Hospital, especially they talk to the press.
