Patients at risk due to poor hospital interaction

An official at the Ministry of Health has blamed health care providers who are not under the ministry’s supervision for not fully cooperating with the ministry’s hospitals. He said this lack of cooperation stems from the fact that they look down upon the ministry’s hospitals because they don’t have American accreditation.
American accreditation gives hospitals a higher health classification than Ministry of Health hospitals, yet this is not the problem, said Dr. Ali Al-Shamri, general director of blood banks at the Ministry of Health.
“The problem is that they think they are better than us,” he said.
“Some specialist hospitals refrain from cooperating with blood banks that are under the Ministry of Health, as these hospitals have a higher classification than the ministry’s hospitals,” he told Arab News yesterday.
“Specialist hospitals, namely King Faisal Specialist Hospital, do not fall within the ministry’s jurisdiction and thus never deal with the ministry’s blood banks,” he added.
Dr. Kamal Abu Rokba, the general manager of the Maternity and Children Hospital in Jeddah, told Arab news that “the higher classification of certain hospitals does not entail any restrictions on the cooperation of these hospitals with the ministry’s blood banks. However, the fact remains that the two parties lack cooperation. In certain urgent situations, these hospitals request blood units from the ministry’s hospitals due to a shortage, although this depends on personal relations.”
Dr. Abdulrahman Melibari, director of King Faisal Hospital, told Arab News: “Given the fact that specialist hospitals are only supervised by the ministry and not under its jurisdiction, they have the right to refrain from dealing with its blood banks, especially as these banks have lower classifications.”
He added that the ministry’s hospitals have bigger problems beyond the mere lack of cooperation between the blood banks. 
He also pointed out that linking all the blood banks in the Kingdom electronically, including the private, specialized and Ministry of Health’s hospitals, is easier than requesting them to cooperate with one another. 
Dr. Al-Shamri, the blood banks department director, confirmed to Arab News that the ministry is studying a project that will connect the Kingdom’s blood banks as a first step toward coordinating amongst the various branches. The next step will entail connecting all the hospitals in the Kingdom to a centralized blood bank to facilitate the documentation of data regarding blood donations and to allow blood bank officials the ability to share information as well as keep track of donors, especially in cases where diseases are detected.