JEDDAH: Following the escape of 15 drug patients from Al-Amal Rehabilitation Hospital last week, the hospital’s director of medical assistance services was discharged.
The decision to discharge Dr. Mohammad Shawish, deputy manager of the Saudi Psychiatric Association and Al-Amal’s former general supervisor, was made by the hospital’s current general supervisor, Dr. Osama Al-Ibrahim.
Shawish was prevented from entering the hospital by security guards standing at the main entrance. Members of the hospital’s staff who tried to intervene to allow Shawish to enter said the security guards had strict orders not to allow him in.
The Committee for the Settlement of Labor Disputes in Jeddah released on Monday a declaration calling for Shawish to be reinstated as the hospital’s general supervisor. Arab News tried to contact him, but his phone was switched off. There was also no Ministry of Health official available for comment.
Sources said that the heads of several other departments — including the hospital’s pharmacy and laboratory — might also be changed. The sources said the changes were “a mere formality and not a real change.” The sources added that senior hospital officials often employed their unqualified relatives, and gave opportunities to relatives and friends over others.
According to a local newspaper, an inside source said the administrative changes were made in light of ongoing investigations into the 15 rehablitation patients who escaped from the hospital. It is still unclear why the patients attacked two nurses and security guard before running away. Sources said the patients fled due to mistreatment and the ineffectiveness of the hospital’s drug rehablitation program.
