Under the supervision of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, the medical staves are working together at Arafat hospitals and health centers to provide distinguished services to pilgrims during this year's Hajj season.
The Mount Arafat area has four hospitals: Arafat General Hospital, Jabal al-Rahmah Hospital, Namira Hospital, and Eastern Arafat Hospital that was inaugurated by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.
These hospitals are supported by 46 health centers at Arafat, 22 A-class centers and 24 B-class where over 700 administrative staff, doctors and technicians work.
Dr. Eyad Abdullah Muazzin, consultant orthodontist and head of the directorate of health centers at Arafat, said these centers have been equipped with modern devices and capabilities as in Mina there22 A-class centers, the top class for health centers in terms of equipment and capacity.
He added that this year an AED (automated external defibrillator) has been made available at each center in Mina, that helps resuscitate patients. And identification files including the evacuation plan and desired conduct for events like floods, natural disasters or food poisoning have been distributed to the heads of these centers. Training courses have been conducted for several employees at health centers in this field. He added that the ministry is keen on making an autoclave ready in all heath centers of the holy places to avoid transfer of infection.
He said these centers are distributed across Arafat area according to a geographical plan to cover the largest possible number of pilgrims, and that the centers surrounding the metro and Namira Mosque were equipped with sufficient staff and medical supplies in preparation for the large numbers of pilgrims expected.
For his part, Dr. Ahmed Kharoubi, Director of Arafat General Hospital, said this hospital’s capacity this year has reached 300 beds; including 28 for intensive care, eight for delivery, three for newborn babies, and the rest is devoted to internal diseases, surgeries and quarantine. Nearly 500 individuals work at the hospital besides the visiting staff including consultant cardiologists and intensive care doctors coming from different provinces of the Kingdom. There will be the scout teams and volunteers who will be assigned to where need be, besides security staff to facilitate the movement of the hajj staff.
Dr. Fahad Afghani, the director of Jabal al-Rahmah Hospital, said the capacity of the hospital was 140 beds, including 17 for intensive care and a delivery room equipped with all equipments, and neonates unit is attached to the hospital.
He said of the remaining beds, two are dedicated to quarantine, intermediate care and cardiopulmonary resuscitation and three for surgeries. Over 280 staff serves at the hospital in addition to the scout teams, who direct and advise patients. The hospital also utilizes the consultants committee that includes cardiology consultants summoned from around the Kingdom to offer services where needed. Volunteers will be deployed too according to the need of health centers.
According to the director of the hospital, Dr. Abdulhakim Omar, Namira Hospital works in close coordination with other hospitals at the Holy Places on the receipt and transfer of patients to ensure integrated health care for pilgrims, and in turn to guarantee a safe hajj in this year. He said a mock evacuation and emergency plan was conducted to ensure the hospital staff is ready for such cases.
He added that a digestive tract endoscope, one of the latest in the field, was added to the hospital besides a renal dialysis device.