JEDDAH, 20 November 2007 — A number of concerned and outraged parents across the Kingdom have recently been raising complaints that their children’s illnesses have become worse or have come close to death as a result of careless doctors rushing their jobs and not appropriately diagnosing injuries and illnesses.
Um Abdullah, an expat mother of four living in Jeddah, told Arab News about her son who, when two years old, fell on his face while playing. “We rushed him to the clinic in our neighborhood to get him checked,” she said.
“When we finally got through the registration procedure to see the doctor, the pediatrician moved his nose back and forth and shone a light inside. He told us that his nose was luckily not broken and that we had nothing to worry about,” Um Abdullah said, adding that the doctor prescribed some painkillers.
Three years later Um Abdullah was told at another hospital that her son was not fine. “They asked me during a checkup whether I knew that his nose had been broken. They told me that it was now slightly crooked and that it would have to be broken to be corrected,” she said.
Situations like this are common, according to other parents whose children have also been misdiagnosed due to doctors in private clinics being made to meet patient quotas.
Abu Omar is another parent, who experienced a traumatic time as a result of negligence by a doctor. He recounted his nightmare when his youngest son, Ammar, came close to death. “The problem began when I noticed my son coughing and refusing to eat,” he said. “I took him to a doctor at a private hospital, who, without doing any tests, wrote a prescription for cough medicine, telling me that I should expect his condition to improve in three days,” said Abu Omar.
However, Ammar’s condition worsened. “After only two days, Ammar became so ill that I had to rush him to a hospital where a chest x-ray was immediately ordered to find a large growth of pneumonia strain,” he said.
Ammar was then admitted to the hospital and took two weeks to recover. “The doctor at the hospital told me that if I had waited a few more days, Ammar would have died. All this because the first doctor I took him to wouldn’t take the time out to properly examine him,” said Abu Omar.
Doctors working in the private sector are also not in agreement with the quotas set. However, they say they have no choice but to abide by rules.
“At the clinic where I work we are told to see between 20-25 patients in a eight-hour split shift per day,” said Muhammad Al-Dabbas, a pediatrician at a private clinic in Jeddah.
“I admit it isn’t fair to the doctors or the patients because it is challenging to give each and every patient the best quality care. However, from the clinic’s point of view they have to set patient quotas to meet budget requirements and maintain operation,” added Al-Dabbas.
