"Many health centers and hospitals in the private sector have luxurious buildings and expensive décor. The huge construction costs are unfairly passed on to their patients,” Al-Asheikh said in a Friday sermon at the Imam Turki Mosque in Riyadh on Friday.

Al-Asheikh also condemned hospital authorities for attempting to fleece patients by making them undergo unnecessary and costly tests.

“They charge a patient SR500 for a test which actually should only cost SR100. They should conduct the tests using cheaper methods without compromising quality,” he added.

He claimed many of the private hospitals used people who had fake qualifications or were simply unqualified to practice medicine. He demanded that there should be regulations in place to deter investors whose sole aim was to profit from the humanitarian act of treating the sick and infirm.

“Medical profession requires compassion and patience, fairness and honesty,” he said, urging doctors to follow the teachings of Islam by being kind and honest in their profession.

He also asked them to remain aware that many patients are poor. Meanwhile, an official at the Council of Gulf Health Ministers said medical errors were on the increase in the Kingdom.

Director General of the Executive Bureau Tawfiq Khoja told Arab News statistics from the council revealed that the number of medical errors in childbirth cases was 27 percent, 17 percent in surgeries, 13 percent in internal medicine and 10 percent in children’s cases.

He said Gulf countries needed to modernize their respective health sectors, in addition to making it more humane, ethical and economic.