The health affairs department in Jeddah has refuted allegations the mental health hospital in Jeddah was too old and did not have enough medication.
Responding to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the department stated the hospital was in a very good condition and most of the buildings were not old.
It also denied reports medicine was scarce there.
The department said there are serious efforts underway to upgrade the hospital’s facilities.
As part of these procedures, a new project for the construction of a 500-bed hospital building was awarded at a cost of SR 250 million.
Several jobs have been created in addition to organizing training programs for hospital staff and sending specialist psychiatrists abroad with the objective of improving their professional standards.
There is also a plan to demolish all dilapidated buildings and construct a dental center in its place, the department pointed out.
Earlier, the anti-graft body sought clarifications from the Ministry of Health with regard to a host of complaints it had received related to the hospital.
The commission had directed the ministry to conduct a probe into the complaints, in addition to either renovating the hospital buildings or move to other premises.
The commission’s intervention came following a newspaper report about the condition of the hospital.
The report claimed the hospital was functioning in dilapidated buildings, medical equipment was obsolete and there was an acute shortage of medication.
It was claimed in the report that the hospital was initially opened as a quarantine facility.
The report also indicated the hospital’s electrical cables were exposed and hanging on the walls.
There were no fire extinguishing systems in the hospital, and a heap of construction waste on the premises posed a serious threat to safety, it was claimed.
The report said the sanitary and hygienic system was in a poor state, with a leaking sewage tank and piles of rubbish.
The commission also drew attention to complaints that inpatients were suffering from contagious diseases in the absence of isolation wards and that the maintenance of hospital facilities was of a poor standard.
The report also said the hospital’s administration was a mess with no computer system to tackle a pile up of files, maintain registries, and monitor the inventory of medicines in the pharmacy.
In a reply to the commission, the health department stated the hospital consists of a number of new buildings where outpatient clinics, reception counters, emergency, support services and the prison cell are.
These buildings are less than five years old, it said, adding there are some old buildings that are now being renovated and refurbished.
The hospital’s administrative departments and sections of some support services are functioning at these buildings.
Referring to complaints about the shortage of medicine, the department revealed there were sufficient supplies.
Charges about dismal state of Jeddah mental health hospital refuted
