Jeddah to get ‘emergency’ hospital and more clinics

The Ministry of Health is streamlining medical care to facilitate health services with an integrated medical faculty. This is to cope with the emergencies cases on account of the rising number of road accident fatalities on Makkah-Jeddah road.
The bride of the Red Sea and gateway to the two holy mosques and religious sites, Jeddah also holds the unenviable reputation of having the highest number of road accident deaths annually.
Such accidents peak in the pilgrimage season posing a challenge to the existing government hospitals that are unable to cope with the growing number of emergency cases.
Dr. Sami Badawood, director of the Ministry of Health (MoH) in the Jeddah governorate, said that a hospital to deal exclusively with emergency cases has been sanctioned at a cost of SR150 million. The 200-bed hospital will cater to patients with trauma and provide instant medical care to emergency cases.
The director said that the Jeddah hospital is a milestone in the health sector as it plays an important role in life saving methods.
The new hospital will be built in east Jeddah, one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in the city.
The director said that a further five specialized health care facilities have been sanctioned in the Jeddah governorate at a cost of SR125 million and several dental clinics are being planned at a value of SR45 million.
Currently, the city’s government hospitals with 1,500 beds serve about 4 million people. The government and private hospitals in Jeddah together provide a total of 7,135 beds according to the ministry’s statistics.
Many Jeddah citizens working in various government sectors are served by their own medical services such as the National Guard, the Ministry of Defense and King Abdulaziz University.
The MoH is planning additional wards to accommodate 2,170 beds in the existing hospitals in Jeddah. Additionally, 84 intensive care beds will be added to King Fahd Hospital, according to ministry sources.
The Kingdom records the highest statistics in the Middle East in the number of road accident-related trauma cases whereas the Jeddah hospitals receive the largest number of emergency cases in Saudi Arabia, according to medical experts.