A pregnant woman was denied admission to an emergency room for more than 90 minutes because she didn't have a copy of her family registry card, despite the fact that the hospital's copier was broken. The woman, who was 23 weeks pregnant, was suffering severe abdominal pain when she arrived at the Al-Ahsa Maternity and Women's Hospital's emergency room, her husband said. The hospital staff insisted that although the woman had her original card, a photocopy was also required and it did not matter that the copying machine there was out of order, he said. The man said he had no choice but to drive through the late night to look for a copier. After driving around for an hour, he found a cyber café where he was able to make the copy. Many patients were outraged after the hospital turned them away because they did not have copies of their cards, he said. “They should have fixed their copy machine, especially because they have emergency cases like delivering babies,” the woman's husband said. The Ministry of Health requires that patients show both the original ID card and a copy of it before they are admitted. “But what about emergency cases in the middle of the night when photocopy shops are closed?,” the man asked. A duty manager at the hospital who asked to remain anonymous said their copier broke down just before Eid. “It is not the staff's problem, it is the management's,” he added. The machine is still out of order and the staff and patients continue to be noisy at a place that should be quiet, the woman's husband said.
