“We have designed our future hospitals to provide each patient with a private room instead of the current practice of putting four or five patients in one room. This move is within plans aimed at reducing congestion at government hospitals,” he said.
Khoshaim said the ministry was now facing a challenge of a unique nature represented in the simultaneous construction of 2,000 health centers and 195 hospitals. “We are constructing 21 psychiatric hospitals in various parts of the Kingdom after noticing an increase in the number of psychiatric patients over the past three years,” he said.
The deputy minister denied delay in the execution of the projects and said among the 195 new projects only two were facing delay in implementation. “We have already opened three hospitals in the provinces of the Northern Borders, Jouf and Tabuk,” he said.
Among the first hospitals the deputy minister opened were Muhammad bin Abdul Aziz hospital in Riyadh and the North Jeddah hospital. Each had a capacity of 500 beds. “We have also refurbished an old general hospital in south Riyadh as well as the general hospitals in Baljurashi and Buraidah,” he explained.
The deputy minister pointed out that the ministry made a strenuous effort to cut down the number of medical mistakes and said doctors in all government hospitals would be trained on how to avoid them and to attend training sessions of the use of medicine.
