The Head of the MOH Hajj Projects Committee, Eng. Ahmed al-Baiz, has affirmed that the committee, as is customary, is working on an extensive and comprehensive study of all the MOH's hospitals and health centers at the Holy Sites, with the aim of evaluating their performance, and making sure that they provide the best possible health services for pilgrims over this year's Hajj season.
He mentioned that His Excellency the Minister of Health has given his orders to place a particular emphasis on the study of Arafat General Hospital and Muzdalifah Hospital, in addition to a number of the old health centers spread throughout the Holy Sites, seeking to identify their current status, for these two hospitals are old, and may need to be renovated in the future.
The committee, he pointed out, has assumed the restoration, repairing and equipping of a number of sections in some health facilities so as to provide the best and highest possible health services for pilgrims.
Whether or not the Arafat General Hospital and Muzdalifah Hospital will be renovated, according to Eng.
al-Baiz, will depend on the result of this study, which will be submitted to His Excellency the Minister of Health. It will be determined whether either of the two hospitals, or both, will need to be restructured, whether in the same place, or in another one. It will be determined, also, whether there is a need to expand the bed capacity of them, or preserve the status quo.
The establishing of these two hospitals will be carried out as quickly as was the case with Mina al-Share' al-Jadeed Hospital, and Mina Emergency Hospital. That is to say, the construction period will range from 10 to 11 months.
Further, a housing department has been tasked with preparing a statistics on housing, the number of inhabitants, and the services available for Hajj manpower.
Besides, questionnaires have been prepared and distributed to the inhabitants to evaluate their housing and measure their satisfaction with it. The MOH Hajj Committee will prepare a comprehensive study after the Hajj season reconsidering the Hajj housing status.
Over and above, the Head of the MOH Hajj Projects Committee, Eng. Ahmed al-Baiz, has mentioned that the Ministry of Health has designated 25 hospitals in the Hajj sites for serving pilgrims: 4 hospitals in Arafat, 4 in Mina, 7 in Makkah and 9 in Madinah, in addition to King Abdullah Medical City.
All these hospitals accommodate a total of 5.250 beds, 4.200 of which are clinical beds, 500 are IC beds, and 550 are emergency beds.
That is to be added to about 141 permanent and seasonal health centers, spread throughout the Hajj sites: 43 centers in Makkah, 80 in the Holy Sites, 46 in Arafat, 6 centers overlooking the Pedestrian, 28 in Mina and 15 in Madinah.