Poor medical standards force Saudis across border

POOR STATE: Hospitals in Riyadh are struggling to cope with the number of patients. (Getty Images)

Some 23,000 Saudis living in northern cities have sought medical treatment across the border in Jordan because of the poor state of care in the Kingdom.

Residents in Arar, Al-Jouf, Sakaka, Qurayat and Rafha are prepared to pay for medical treatments in neighbouring Jordan because they are so unhappy with the quality of public heath care, reported Al-Riyadh.

One man, Battal Al Ruwaili told the paper he had taken out a large loan to pay for a flight for his ailing mother to Jordan for medical treatment after the King Fahd Hospital in Riyadh was unable to schedule an appointment for months.

Another person, Salah Al Shamari, from Al-Jouf, said his father was treated in a government hospital in the region that lacked adequate facilities, which he has since blamed for leading to his father’s stroke.

“I requested to transfer my father to a bigger hospital in Riyadh, but all the hospitals said that they were full,” he told the paper.

“I tried to take him to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh at my own expense but they were full too. I was forced to borrow money to rent an ambulance and to take him to Jordan for treatment. In Jordan, his condition improved.”

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