Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manea said recent incidences of infants stolen from hospitals has not amounted to a dangerous phenomenon. “Some 750,000 babies are born each year in the Kingdom's hospitals. Over the past five years, 3,750,000 babies were born with no cases of theft or kidnapping reported,” the minister told Al-Jazira Arabic daily. Al-Manea said that investigations are continuing into the cases reported and gave his assurance that justice would be delivered, in due time. He described the theft of newborns as a pattern of behavior that is alien to Saudi society whose culture and religious ways do not contribute to such conduct. Speaking about the shortage of incubators at government hospitals, Al-Manea said that the Ministry of Health has put in place a mechanism by which newborns in need of intensive care would be transferred to private hospitals if government hospitals cannot accommodate them, with the government picking up the tab. Pregnancy and childbirth cases are handled by preliminary health care centers or referred to public or maternity hospitals. Al-Manea added that private health institutions are obliged to provide first-aid treatment to all emergency and life-threatening cases reported without requiring advance cash payment. __
