JEDDAH: The Health Affairs Department in Jeddah has taken over a building for its Medical Board and Dentistry Center which was deemed “unfit” by engineers 20 months ago. The poor state of the building was revealed in an investigation by Okaz/Saudi Gazette. The department said in a statement Sunday that its newly-rented building had been selected by a committee made up of members from different departments, engineers and dentists, and has the advantage of being located on three streets including a main one, containing 32 apartments and 40 dentist clinics. There is also space for further expansion. The center's clinics will cater for the city's northern areas and reduce pressure on the city's single government dentistry center, it added. In its report, Okaz/Saudi Gazette revealed that the Jeddah health department had rented an old, unfit building for SR1.5 million. The department said the Ministry of Finance approved the decision which stated that the rent would be one million riyals, based on the opinion of a state property committee. The department said the specialized committees had listed some major observations and had the owner tackle them before the building was taken over. It said the one million riyal rent was reasonable. It added that this was part of the Ministry of Health's urgent plan to improve dentistry services which involved renting a building and opening a fully-equipped dentistry center for Jeddah residents. “The building is now equipped and the center is ready to operate.” Basem Abu Znada, a dentistry consultant, headed the center's preparation process, said the statement. The department rejected the reporter's claim that the area allocated for the Medical Board was “an apartment and a half” because the ground, first and second floors were designated for the board. The new project made it possible to introduce a computer system. The board has started operating successfully, it added. Okaz/Saudi Gazette, however, said that the special report it published on the building in question had been issued by five engineers approved by the department's Project Management Division who, 20 months ago, registered 24 observations concerning engineering, technical and electrical issues in the building. The engineers stated in their report, of which the newspaper has a copy, that the building was unfit for the project. The engineers' report also said the department ignored essential observations that affect the medical service introduced to patients and resulted in a delay in opening the much-needed center.
