AHSA: The lack of ambulance drivers at Prince Saud Bin Jalawi Hospital in Al-Ahsa is indicative of a wider shortage of drivers at the region's General Directorate of Health in Al-Ahsa, according to officials. Okaz/Saudi Gazette reporters attempting to investigate the issue failed to achieve a response from Omar Bayamin, the medical technical director at Prince Saud Bin Jalawi Hospital, when he was called by telephone, but an official at the hospital, who declined to give his name, said the issue was also related to “driver illness and personal reasons”. “The hospital is unable to address the driver shortage because of the shortage of staff in general,” he said. “On most days the hospital gets other members of staff to cover for absent drivers and they are given days off in return.” The official noted that ambulance drivers have asked for improved working conditions and pay rises. Doctors at the hospital's emergency department said the driver shortage has led them to frequently prescribe high-dosage medicines to satisfy patients and discourage them from requesting referral to other hospitals which would require an ambulance. Some patients undergoing X-ray examination at the hospital, meanwhile, have complained of staff leaving cleaning materials in the open near patients. “I have repeatedly asked cleaners to put cleaning substances away in their proper place, but they've just ignored me,” said Umm Ahmad, a patient at Prince Saud Bin Jalawi Hospital. An X-ray technician attributed staff behavior to “lenient penalties”.
