Khaled Tashkandi Okaz newspaper I wanted to wait for a while before commenting on the case of Salah Al-Deen, the child who died allegedly because of a medical mistake at Dr. Erfan & Bagedo General Hospital in Jeddah. I was the first media person to interview the father, Yusuf Jameel, and his family, hours after the death of their son. First, the closure of the hospital is not the first instance authorities have taken such a drastic measure. The Ministry of Health routinely closes hospitals if violations are repeated. A good example would be a medical compound in Jeddah that was closed last September when a doctor was found working there without a permit. Perhaps a more famous case is the hospital in Riyadh that was closed in July after nearly 33 years in operation. A committee detected 17 violations including no presence of an anesthesiologist. In Dammam, a hospital was shut down for 15 days after a medical mistake caused the death of a woman who suffered internal bleeding. There were countless other cases of hospitals being shut down this year and this case is no exception. We have to understand that medical mistakes are something common around the world and they occur even in the best hospitals that provide the most advanced medical services. A recent study showed that in America alone some 200,000 people die every year because of medical mistakes. Medical mistakes are one of the leading causes of death in US hospitals, according to a study in the New York Times this year. In Canada, which is one of the best in the world when it comes to healthcare services, 24,000 people die every year because of medical mistakes. However, despite the fact that medical mistakes are common, the Ministry of Health should shoulder some responsibility for what happens in hospitals under its supervision. The ministry mentioned in its report that part of the reason why Dr. Erfan & Bagedo General Hospital was closed was fatal mistakes in the past. If this were the case, then why didn't the ministry do anything to protect human lives? To solve this problem, I believe we need specialized medical courts where medical teams work in a judicial committee jointly made by the ministries of justice and health. This will ensure that the people who are responsible for the mistakes are punished and not the entire hospital. It is not fair to punish an entire medical establishment, including all medical and administrative staff, because of a mistake committed by a few people. The question remains: Is closing down the hospital a solution?
