JEDDAH, 10 February — Employees at King Fahd Hospital in Baha allegedly assaulted a Saudi last Sunday when he demanded that a female doctor examine his mother, apparently suffering from severe body pains.
Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday that Muhammad Nasser Al-Ghamdi took his mother to the emergency wing for women in the hospital and told the male doctor there that he would not allow a male doctor to examine his mother. The doctor explained that there was no female doctor present at the time, as she took her day off on Sundays. The doctor then offered to bring a female doctor from a maternity ward, but the Saudi refused the offer.
Another consultant doctor advised Al-Ghamdi to bring his mother the following day if he insisted on seeing a female doctor, but Al-Ghamdi insisted on a fuller explanation as to why no female doctor was available at the emergency ward. He also queried why male doctors were allowed to work in female wards while even the husbands of female patients were not allowed inside.
Dr. Salah Al-Abd Al-Ali, director of ealth affairs in the region, said he asked Al-Ghamdi to submit a written complaint.
