An Arab pharmacist has accused a private hospital of being behind 223 deaths during 2011 and 2012. The hospital’s former employee said in letters filed to the Ministry of Interior, Madinah governorate, the Health Affairs Department and the National Anti-Corruption Commission that there were financial excesses that included giving rewards to one of Madinah’s health affairs officials.
The pharmacist alleged in the letters the occurrence of 130 deaths in 2012 and 93 deaths during 2011 as a result of medical mistakes, with no investigations being carried out into the incidents.
He said the hospital received millions of riyals from the Ministry of Health and insurance companies through forged claims that carried fake stamps of consultants.
The pharmacist said that the doctor mentioned in the claim was not a consultant but that the stamp on the claim said he was. The man also claimed that a senior official at Madinah Health Affairs was being paid in exchange for his repeated visits to the hospital.
One of the most important issues included in the letters addressed to the National Anti-Corruption Commission was the case of a caesarean operation that was performed on a lady who was suffering from diabetes and hepatitis B, as well as asthma attacks. The report stated the child was healthy and had no health problems, while in reality he suffered severe complications that included retinal hemorrhage and brain damage as a result of a failure to perform the required treatment.
In December 2011, the pharmacist added, “We heard emergency calls to gynecology. Doctors hurried to the operation room and tried to resuscitate a woman for two hours but she died. The deceased’s treating doctor said she gave the patient Primperan (a drug to treat nausea) before she suffered the complications. The nausea drug was not supposed to be given to the patient before she gave birth, the pharmacist said.
The same female doctor mistakenly performed a hysterectomy on another woman who was admitted into the ICU for an acute hemorrhage.”
The man cited several cases where patients died as a result of pure negligence, like doctors ignoring emergency calls, lack of oxygen at the ICU and unnecessary procedures aimed at obtaining more money from the referring body (who referred the patient and bearing the costs just like the Ministry of Health).
Madinah Health Affairs spokesman Abdurazzaq Hafez confirmed receiving the man’s complaints and said he should go to the Labor Office.
Pharmacist says hospital complicit in 233 deaths
