A visitor coming out of the hospital. (Okaz photo) JEDDAH – The administration of the Mental Health Hospital here is blaming poor security, lack of finances and inadequate staffing for the increasing incidents of hashish and other drug smuggling and attacks on staff by patients. The police investigations show that the drug trade is between patients referred from prisons and traffickers. Doctors and staff say they are attacked by patients if they do not give them medication containing certain drugs. Dr. Adnan Mufti, Director of the hospital in Jeddah, said there are only 120 beds, which is inadequate for the population of Jeddah and its suburbs. “By definition this will affect the quality of services which the hospital provides to patients. The shortage of staff is another major obstacle so the hospital cannot treat all psychiatric patients.” Another problem is that the hospital is not authorized to refer emergency cases to private hospitals for treatment. This is mainly because of the lack of financial allocations. He said the hospital's administration has suggested temporary solutions which include assistance from doctors and consultant psychiatrists working at Al-Amal Hospital in Jeddah. A request has been made, but there has been no response from Al-Amal Hospital so far. He rejected claims that there are medicine shortages. He said there are old and new types of medicines prescribed to patients. These new medicines are expensive with one injection costing over SR700. He said the hospital has a home-based care service on a weekly basis which does take some pressure off the hospital. He said there is a lot of old equipment at the hospital which needs to be replaced. He said conditions at the hospital are resulting in the proliferation of rodents and insects. He said the administration has repeatedly asked for a police station to be set up at the hospital but nothing has materialized so far.
