The Administrative Court in Riyadh is currently examining a petition filed by a child, who was transfused with HIV-contaminated blood samples at a public hospital in the southern province of Jazan earlier this year. The lawyer representing the victim Riham Hakami said his client’s demand of SR 50 million as damages for the life-threatening mistake of the hospital is far below the international compensation rate for similar medical errors. “In some countries the compensation for a similar error is around 160 million euros (SR 800 million) apart from sacking and imprisoning the responsible officials,” the lawyer said in a statement. He also demanded holding the doctor legally accountable for his mistake and hoped that the court would issue its verdict after a few hearings, a local daily reported yesterday. The Ministry of Health issued 11 orders on the basis of the recommendations of the committee set up by it to probe the medical error including sacking five senior officials in the health department. The daily added that it failed to get any comment on the case from the spokesman of the ministry. Riham is a sickle-cell anemia patient who has had blood transfusion every year at the same hospital where the accident took place. The ministry has described the incident as a grave mistake expressed its deep apologies to “the girl, her parents, her family and the Saudi society” and vowed to hold those responsible accountable. The ministry’s penal actions included the termination of the director of Jazan General Hospital, the hospital’s medical director and the director of the laboratory and blood bank. The latter was fined SR 10,000. Reacting to the medical error, the Human Rights Commission demanded that the Ministry of Health immediately begin examining blood transfusion procedures and mechanisms countrywide to ensure such mistakes are not repeated. In a recent letter to the Ministry of Health, the National Anti-corruption Commission demanded that a committee be set up to ensure that both the citizens and residents get the best possible service in the hospitals under the ministry.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 07:17:56 +0000
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