There has been widespread public outrage at a video posted on social networking sites showing an elderly man sleeping on the floor of a corridor at Qatif Central Hospital.

However, the hospital’s administrators have rejected accusations that they have been negligent and said the man has a mental illness and refuses to sleep or receive treatment on a bed, according to a report in a local publication recently.

The almost three-minute video, which has gone viral, shows the man asleep on the floor with a nurse trying to wake him up so he could return to his room. However, the patient does not respond. Frequent attempts by medical and nursing staff at the hospital to move the patient were unsuccessful.

Hospital Director Kamel Al-Obad said those taking videos must determine the context of such incidents before posting them online. “The publication of such images without background checks raises unnecessary concerns among patients outside and inside the hospital and leads to speculation,” he said.

Al-Obad said the elderly man suffers from schizophrenia. “He was admitted with inflammation in his chest and remained in intensive care for three days, and then transferred to another in-patient room for 14 days. A patient like this should not have to stay in the hospital for this long, but he has no family members capable of looking after him.”

The patient has a son and daughter, but both are unable to provide him with home care. Al-Obad said the Sehat Charitable Association does not have a bed for him currently. His daughter has discharged him from the hospital until a bed becomes available.

He said Amal Complex for Mental Health Care in Dammam provides psychiatric treatment for patients. They are usually accompanied by a family member, but this elderly patient did not have anyone to stay with him, he said.