Male doctors have been warned against examining women inside their clinics in one-on-one consultations to avoid being accused of “suspicious situations of Khalwa (illegal seclusion with a woman)”, according to a Ministry of Health statement circulated at government and private hospitals in the Kingdom. A female nurse should accompany the woman patient inside the clinic when examined by a male doctor, the ministry said. The ministry said that a woman's male guardian should be present during examination by a male doctor. All doctors who violate the order would be investigated and “severely” punished, the statement said. Meanwhile, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah, Minister of Health, has approved a SR320 million project for a second maternity and children's hospital in Al-Ahsa. The hospital will be built on an area of 200,000 sq. meters and is designed to have a capacity of 400 beds. The second hospital will help to serve the region's population of 1.5 million people, said Hussein Al-Ruwaili, director of the Health Affairs Department in Al-Ahsa. The region has eight operational hospitals with a total capacity of 1,226 beds, in addition to 68 medical clinics scattered all over the region. The future health care plan in Al-Ahsa region aims to have 11 hospitals with a total bed capacity of 1,712 beds, he said. The health department in Al-Ahsa approves five new medical clinics every year, Al
