Sariha, head of Studies and Information at the secretariat of the National Committee for Combating Drugs, has said that there are three private sector projects for hospitals to treat drug addiction. Two of the facilities will be in Riyadh and the other in the Eastern Province. “The hospitals will be the biggest and most up-to-date in the Middle East, and certain exceptions will be made for them in terms of the conditions and features imposed by the authorities concerned,” Al-Sariha said. “The National Committee has produced a strategy for investment in the care home and drug treatment sector.” He said that the National Committee for Combating Drugs has backed the construction of private sector hospitals for drug addiction treatment through its contact with the relevant authorities for the provision of land and loans to encourage businessmen and investors to enter the sector. Al-Sariha added that the committee's field studies into drug use rates had revealed a “reassuring” rate among adults. “A 1.3 percent rate of drug abuse was recorded,” Al-Sariha said. The Ministry of Health recently announced that 16 new Ministry of Health psychiatric health and drug addiction hospitals are to open across the country, with one new 500-bed facility to open in Riyadh. Ministry spokesman Khaled Marghalani said the SR350-million-facility will work in tandem with Riyadh's Al-Amal Mental Health Complex and will bring the number of beds for mental health patients in the capital to1,000. The moves, he said, are part of concerted efforts by the Ministry of Health to improve the treatment of psychiatric diseases and addiction, and the 16 new hospitals will each provide a further 200 and 500 beds, bringing the nationwide total to 4,150. “Most of the hospitals, which will also treat drug addicts, are nearing completion,” Marghalani said. “The ministry already has 20 mental hospitals with 2,811 beds across the country, along with three specialized drug addiction centers. There are also 94 clinics at the hospitals for psychiatric illnesses and addiction,” Al-Sariha said. The hospitals, he added, are staffed by 627 psychiatrists, 406 psychiatric specialists, 724 social workers and 3,025 psychiatric nurses. “There is a widespread social stigma surrounding mental illness,” Marghalani said. “Patients should not be subject to such a myopic view and should have their illnesses regarded in the same way as brain diseases,” the official said.
