A total of 14 hospitals - seven in Makkah, four at Mina and three at Arafat with 2,000 beds - are in full gear to extend medical services to the pilgrims for this year's Hajj. A team of foreign specialists has also been engaged to work in the intensive care units of the hospitals, Dr. Khalid Qasim Al-Sumairi, the director of Health Affairs in the Makkah region, told The Saudi Gazette. The medical and paramedical staff, totaling 9,000 personnel, have started working right from the beginning of the Hajj flights. Clinics in Jeddah and Madinah airports have been opened to tend to pilgrims requiring medical care and treatment. The pilgrims grouping centers in Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah have also been provided with medical units. Five dispensaries inside the Holy Mosque have begun working, patients requiring intensive treatment are transferred via ambulances to any of the general hospitals. The six car parks around Makkah have also been provided each with a dispensary to attend to all cases requiring treatment, said Al-Sumairi. In addition, a Health Center at Al-Abyar between Makkah and Madinah well-equipped and having an operation theater is attending all the emergency cases. --MORE 1324 Local Time 1024 GMT
