JEDDAH: The Ministry of Health’s hospitals in Jeddah has spent SR4 million on helping sick pilgrims complete their Haj rituals, and sending home others who were not able to do so.

This is according to Saeed Al-Ghamdi, chief executive officer of the King Abdullah Medical Complex in Jeddah. He said medical workers had been sent with 300 pilgrims to Arafat last week.

Various hospitals collaborated to provide ambulances, with all the equipment required for intensive care operations. The teams included 60 doctors, 37 nurses and several paramedics, Al-Ghamdi was quoted as saying by a local newspaper. He said each team accompanied patients for 48 hours at the holy sites, at a cost of SR6,000 for each sick person. “The King Abdullah Medical Complex recruited more than 90 supporting medical workers to help the doctors care for patients,” he said.

He said the complex also provided treatment for 36 people, of whom 27 were in a critical condition. “Some of the cases involved sunstroke, fractures and injuries to various parts of the body. There were also 12 people who have not been identified.”

He said all medical workers have to provide treatment regardless of the nationality of sick pilgrims. Photographs are taken of all those treated so that they can be identified by their embassy representatives and families.

Mubarak Al-Asiri, the director general of Jeddah’s health department, said that hospitals in the city treated 161 people up until Saturday. Emergency teams have also been deployed to assist with treatment of those injured in last week’s incident, he said.