The shortage of beds in various hospitals would be overcome in six months' time and there will always be a bed available for a patient, Dr.Yasir Al-Ghamdi, the general supervisor of the Ministry of Health's Beds and Hospitalization Administration, has said. He said Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, Minister of Health, has adopted a strategy aimed at tackling the main problems related to patients' needs, and providing patients with easy and distinctive medical care. His administration's plan, he said, involves granting incentives for hospitals that achieve a high rate of bed occupation and approaching the hospitals which have shortcomings. He said the minister has targeted the main problems in the health sector and chalked out strategies to deal with them. The problems have been divided into four points – beds management, patients relations, home care and employees relations, Dr. Al-Ghamdi said. He added that the problem of unavailability of beds varies from one region to another, but the Riyadh, Western and Eastern regions are the worst hit. The basic flaw, he said, was that in the development of the health sector population increase factor was not taken into account. “People will feel the fruits of our administration work within three to six months. Providing a bed is the responsibility of the medical establishment not the patient's. A patient in need of a bed should be provided with one as he or she arrives to the hospital,” he said. He said the minister created the administration to eliminate some negative practices of turning down patients despite availability of beds.
