Some complaints received by the NSHR claimed patients were not attended to on time and often had to wait for a long time. There were also allegations that many services were not satisfactory, supervisor of NSHR in Jeddah Hussein Al-Sharif said.

However, the NSHR inspectors found that patients suffered mostly because of the shortage of doctors and other staff and ongoing development and repair work at the hospital.

The NSHR demanded that the Ministry of Health supply more staff, equipment and other facilities with due consideration to the fact that the hospital had to cater to people beyond its capacity.

Nurses in the hospital requested the NSHR to make hospital authorities pay them special allowances for their extra work.

It was also reported earlier that the nurses had called a strike following a dispute with their director and to obtain special allowances.

The facility was upgraded in 2007 to a 100-bed hospital with a new four-story building for internal medicine, pediatric, labor and orthopedic wards.