ALKHOBAR: There has been a substantial increase in the number of drug addicts who are still on the waiting list of patients registered at various Al-Amal hospitals in the Kingdom.
The number of drug addicts who need treatment but are reluctant to get their names registered in the list for fear of revealing their addiction is supposedly much higher than this. This situation has prompted many mental health specialists and officials of Al-Amal hospitals to call for expanding the treatment and rehabilitation facilities in the Kingdom by opening more mental health hospitals and rehabilitation centers in addition to increasing beds of the existing hospitals. Besides, the private sector could be allowed to play a major role in this field, Al-Riyadh Arabic newspaper said in a recent report.
Speaking to the newspaper, several experts and senior officials of Al-Amal hospitals also called for reinforcing the existing hospitals with sufficient medical and administrative staff. Dr. Muhammad Shawush, director of the mental health department in Jeddah, stressed the need for expanding hospitals and rehabilitation centers for drug addicts across the Kingdom. “This problem should be addressed as a major health problem facing Saudi society. A wide variety of rehabilitation programs should be chalked out in line with a well-organized road map and clear-cut strategy to deal with this problem,” he said while underlining the need for readying qualified and trained teams of cadets to deal with drug addicts by providing them proper treatment and rehabilitation besides preventing rehabilitated persons from using drugs again.
He also emphasized that treatment programs of Al-Amal hospitals should be reorganized in the pattern of specialist programs being followed by major hospitals such as King Faisal Specialist Hospital, King Khaled Eye Hospital and Prince Sultan Heart Center. This specialist program must be provided with autonomous status in concluding contracts, arranging programs, conducting researches and providing training, he said.
Dr. Shawush lamented the defective outlook of the concerned agencies in the society toward addressing this grave social problem in the best possible manner. “They are viewing this problem only superficially, even though it is a grave matter that requires total involvement of the conscience of the nation and its people as a whole. Both civil society organizations and voluntary groups fail to realize its seriousness while addressing the problem,” he said, noting that people with no specialization in the problems of drug addicts are tasked to handle their problems. “These people are looking at this problem with a rigid outlook.” Referring to the growing tendency on the part of psychiatrists, sociologists and supervisors of rehabilitation programs at Al-Amal hospitals to leave the hospitals due to low salary and allowances, Dr. Shawush said Al-Amal hospitals were facing a serious crisis. He admitted that many specialists were resigning in pursuit of better pay and allowances. “There should be in-depth studies about the problems facing these hospitals, and serious efforts should be taken to address these problems. This should be with the participation of the hospitals and all concerned agencies,” he said.
Referring to the issue of allowing the private sector to take part in the treatment of drug addicts, professor Suleiman Al-Zayidi, acting director of Jeddah Al-Amal Hospital, said that this should be in line with clear and specific regulations and a working mechanism. “First of all, the concept of societal participation in curbing this phenomenon must be further strengthened. Addressing the problem of drug addiction must be viewed as a collective responsibility of all sections of society instead of the duty of certain individuals or organizations,” he said while stressing that developing such a culture should be based on two concepts: social responsibility and professional integrity.
He said private hospitals should be established in line with specific standards set by the authorities, and they should be linked with an online system to have access to the Ministry of Health for continuous and close monitoring of their functioning.
“The ministry will have a role to play in both hiring and giving training to the medical and administrative staff. It will have the right to appoint one technical official and another administrative official to closely follow up the functioning of such hospitals. These officials should present periodic reports to the ministry,” he said while insisting that anti-drug departments would also have access to monitor these hospitals.
Al-Zayidi urged the government to meet 30 to 50 percent of the costs of building and operating hospitals by the private sector to facilitate its entry into the field. Referring to the demand for allowing the private sector to take part in the expansion of the existing Al-Amal hospitals, he said the ministry should carry out extensive studies about the actual requirements of these hospitals and various aspects of the problem before taking a favorable decision in this regard.
According to Al-Zayidi, Saudi Arabia is in the forefront of Arab and Muslim countries and even of some developed countries in tackling drug cases as well as giving treatment and conducting rehabilitation programs for drug addicts. Referring to major handicaps facing the Kingdom in this field, he cited that lack of administrative professionalism was the big challenge. “It is unfortunate that we are still operating Al-Amal hospitals in a pattern similar to other general hospitals. In the treatment of drug addicts, the relationship should not be similar to the one between doctors and patients in general hospitals,” he said emphasizing that there should be an ideal relationship between the patient and a fully-fledged treatment team. Al-Zayidi also called for allocating more money to run Al-Amal hospitals in the Kingdom.
On his part, Dr. Muhammad Al-Zahrani, general supervisor of Al-Amal Mental Health Hospital Complex in Dammam, said establishing specialist hospitals for the treatment of drug addicts would help a lot in reducing the burden on Al-Amal hospitals. He also called for a hike in the salary and allowances of medical and administrative staff of Al-Amal hospitals, as they are doing a difficult job of handling patients who have addictions in various intensities.
Source: Arabnews.com
Date: 21 February 2012