ABHA: A Shoura Council member has demanded that Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie should take responsibility and resign for what he characterized as an unacceptably high number of medical malpractice cases in the Kingdom.
“I have called for the freezing of the ministry’s allocations of SR25 billion until a comprehensive health strategy is approved by the Shoura,” Abdullah Al-Tuwairqi told Arab News yesterday.
Al-Tuwairqi lambasted the minister’s work during Tuesday’s Shoura Council session.
The Shoura member specifically cited an increasing number of medical mistakes and a shortage of medicines as the reason for his call for the minister’s resignation.
Shoura Council President Saleh Bin-Humaid allowed Al-Tuwairqi his full allotted time to make his comments. There was deafening silence in the hall when Al-Tuwairqi took to the floor.
“The minister has been in his position for six years and has not done much to implement the national health strategy he inherited from his predecessor,” Al-Tuwairqi said, adding that some areas in the Kingdom are still without ambulances.
Meanwhile, more than 10,400 medical doctors, paramedics, nurses and pharmacists have been banned from practice, local newspapers reported yesterday, quoting Dr. Muhammad Al-Firaihi, secretary-general of the Committee for Health Specializations.
He said the committee so far discovered 720 forged certificates and put 10,494 health workers on the blacklist because they were not qualified.
