Manama: The head of a public hospital in Saudi Arabia has resigned following a medical error that resulted in the death of a foetus and the mother developing kidney failure.
“I cannot bear the responsibility for these patients,” Dr Abdul Aziz Bin Nekhilan Al Shimmari, the head of Hael Public Hospital in northern Saudi Arabia, said.
“The health affairs directorate should assume the responsibility of the medical errors. There are so many people working in the hospital who are untrained and who cannot speak English. The nurse who was among those behind the error was not properly qualified and did not speak English well enough,” he said, quoted by local Arabic daily Al Eqtisadiah on Sunday.
According to the daily, an investigation by an expert commission concluded that the medical error in early Ramadan was shared by a lab employee, a nurse and a doctor.
The official charged that the directorate had repeatedly interfered in the management of the hospital, resulting in medical errors, poor structure and failure of projects.
“The hospital does not have enough medical staff and there is an acute shortage in the laboratory personnel. There is only one doctor tasked with meeting the needs of the women and maternity ward and the 50 Saudi nurses recruited for the hospital are not adequately qualified. Under such conditions, I prefer to serve my country in a different location and give the opportunity to another person to take over,” he said.