The King Saud University Hospital only provides medication for cancer inpatients and not for outpatients because there is no budgetary allocation for the latter, the hospital’s deputy director, Dr. Saeed Al-Ghamidi, clarified.

Stating that there was a proposal to increase budget support for the hospital’s pharmacy, he said if the Ministry of Finance approves it, medication will be dispensed to all patients.

Cancer patients were surprised when the pharmacy declined to dispense their medication because it wasn’t available in the hospital’s pharmacy. They were asked to buy the medication from outside or wait for further notice. Patients expressed their anger and demanded a solution for their problems.

The issue is not restricted to cancer patients in Jeddah alone. A large number of patients who come from outside Jeddah for their appointments to get medication go back empty handed. Most of these patients can’t afford to buy their own medication because it is very expensive and could reach SR3,000 per dose.

The deputy director of King Abdulaziz University Hospital said the hospital provides large amounts of medications, but certain medicines can’t be provided for outpatients because there is no allocated budget for them.

He said the budget isn’t like King Faisal Specialty Hospital or Military or Border Guard Hospital. Such patients should go to centers that specialize in treating cancer, he said.

“We have a proposal to increase support for the hospital’s pharmacy budget, and we sent the proposal to the university administration and it has been approved.

The proposal has been sent to the Ministry of Finance, but we haven’t received approval yet. As soon as the approval is given, medications will be dispensed to all the hospital’s patients,” he said.