JEDDAH, 2 September 2003 — Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie has urged the authorities to complete their investigation of a private hospital which allegedly threw an AIDS patient out into the street and take action.
Al-Manie also ordered two Health Ministry representatives to join the panel set up by the health affairs department in Jeddah to probe the incident.
Dr. Talal Akram, acting director of health affairs, set up the panel last month to investigate the circumstances that prompted the New Jeddah Clinic Hospital to discharge Abdul Rahim Mahmood, a 45-year-old Indonesian, and dump him on the street.
Al-Watan newspaper quoted medical sources as saying that the hospital could be fined as much as SR100,000 if found guilty of wrongdoing.
Dr. Akram had called the incident “deplorable” and said: “If we look at it from the human side, what happened is disgusting and not representative of our society or our religion.”
The condition of Mahmood, who is now receiving treatment at King Saud Hospital for Contagious Diseases, has improved.
Walid Al-Sabahi, administrative manager of Rajab and Silsilah, where the patient worked, has said that those who maltreated his employee must be given maximum punishment.
“We informed the hospital that we will pay for the treatment. But the hospital decided to throw the patient on the street,” the director told Okaz daily.
According to a friend, Mahmood had symptoms of the disease about a month ago and had become forgetful. “He is an introvert and did not come out of his flat on weekends if he could avoid it,” he told Okaz.
Four Arab colleagues of Mahmood who used to share his room in a residential building underwent checkups but the tests showed they were free from AIDS.
