JEDDAH, 16 May 2007 — A Pakistani worker who fell unconscious while working at a construction site in the city died yesterday after two private hospitals refused to give him emergency care, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.
The man, whose name has not been released, was initially transferred by his friends to a nearby clinic in a taxi. The clinic refused to accept the patient or provide him with first aid claiming there were no doctors available.
The man was then taken to a private hospital where the doctor in the ER department refused to accept the case saying the man was already dead. The hospital further refused to accept the body or initiate the legal process of issuing a death certificate.
“We were working together and suddenly he felt dizzy and fell unconscious. I got a cab and transferred him with the help of a friend to a private clinic. Though we were there at five in the evening they claimed there were no doctors available,” said Ghulam Saroor, the man’s friend and coworker.
“We then went to a private hospital. The doctor there told us that he had died and that we must take the body to the police department,” he said, adding that they immediately took the body to the local police station.
The driver of the taxi, Muhammad Akram, said, “A young man asked me to help him take an ill man to a nearby hospital. However, the clinic refused to accept the case and so we went to a well-known hospital in the Makarona district of Jeddah, but it was too late.”
Muhammad Abdul Jawad, spokesman from the Health Affairs, said, “The system obliges all hospitals, even private ones, to accept all critical cases, including those resulting from car accidents.”
He added that if it transpires that the hospitals involved did not provide cooperation then they will be punished.
