A number of residents from Thar in the north of Najran complained Saturday to the regional head of Health Affairs Yahya Shuwail over the Ministry of Health approval for the conversion of Thar Central Hospital from a specialist complex serving the region into a complex of clinics.
The Hospitals Administration manager at Najran Health Affairs, Muhsin Al-Dhayaran, when asked by Okaz/Saudi Gazette by telephone, refused to comment on the move, and a second call after hearing the statements of members of the public outside Health Affairs main office went unanswered.
According to the public, Thar Hospital was designed to be a Class A hospital and constitute a central health service for all areas of the region due to its facilities and geographical location. The hospital is now due to be converted into a Class B complex of clinics.
Yadma Mukhlis, a member of the municipal council, said that the hospital had only recently been fully equipped and that the local population was waiting for its inauguration by the regional Emir.
“Then we were surprised to find out that Najran Health Affairs was in the process of converting it into a complex of clinics,” he said. “The head of Health Affairs promised people that their complaint would be taken into consideration and that he would follow up the issue.”
Dr. Ghafoun Salim, a resident of the region, said the hospital was planned to serve the north of the region with 100 beds and offer all health and medical specialties such as intensive care, childcare, incubators for new born babies, a burns unit, a kidney center with wards for both males and females, an emergency department and out-patient clinics.
“It would also have the very latest equipment found at no other hospital in the region and the people want it to stay as it was originally planned,” he said.
MAHMOUD AL-HARITHY & AHMAD DANQAWA
Saudi Gazette