SAUDI HEALTH CARE SERVICES GEARED UP TO SERVE HAJ PILGRIMS

By Ahmad Kamil Tahir

MECCA, Nov 4 (BERNAMA) -- The Saudi Arabian health authorities are gearing
up towards serving haj pilgrims in Mecca, Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah and
Jeddah, the Saudi Arabian English daily, Arab News, reported Wednesday.

"The Ajyad Emergency Hospital, in proximity to the Grand Mosque, has been
refurbished with 52 beds, spread over an area of 3,000 square meters," the
newspaper quoted Khaled Obaid Zafar, the director-general of Health Affairs in
Mecca province.

Its emergency department contains 10 beds for men, seven for women, eight
for observation, eight for coronary care, two for revival of heart and lung and
12 for intensive care, said Zafar.

He added that the hospital’s isolation ward has five beds, modern
laboratory, scanning and X-ray departments, pharmacy and separate sections for
medical records, dieting, social and patient relations plus a single-day surgery
department with 20 beds and operation theaters, said Zafar.

"The King Faisal Hospital has been refurbished and has double its previous
capacity. It also has state-of-the-art laboratory, blood bank, tissue and
tuberculosis departments and an emergency ward which has 29 beds with separate
sections for men and women," he said.


Ibn Sina Hospital was expanded and has additional space for 100 beds while
two new health centers have been added, Zafar said.

The Mina Valley Hospital has been reconstructed with 194 beds — 25 of these
are for intensive care, 25 for sunstroke patients, 24 for observation and has
two operation theaters.

"The Mina Bridge Hospital has been totally renovated and now has a capacity
for 140 beds, four operation theaters, latest medical apparatus, 28 beds for
intensive care and outpatient clinics," Zafar said.

"The New Mina Street Hospital has 50 beds while the clinics which used to
function in tents have been shifted to the new building. The Al-Jamrat Bridge
has 20 health centers now," he added.

"Twenty-five beds in the 100-bed King Saud Hospital in Jeddah is reserved
for intensive care in preventive health services for pilgrims arriving at King
Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah," he said.

Meanwhile, Tabung Haji's (Malaysian Pilgrim Fund) invited religious
scholar Ustaz Sapawi Che Mat said Malaysian pilgrims can continue to use scented
sanitizers which were initially deemed unsuitable.

Newspaper reports here on Tuesday had quoted religious scholars as advising
Haj pilgrims to avoid using hand sanitizers that contain perfume while in ihram
and use scentless disinfectants instead.

The newspaper quoted Sheikh Ahmed Hamad Al-Mazroua, a judge at the Court of
Cassation in Mecca, as saying that the use of scented sanitizers while pilgrims
are in ihram, is a violation of the rules of ihram.

"Since the intension of using such sanitizers was to cleanse their hands and
not to add any form of perfume to their bodies, it is does not violate any rules
of ihram," said Sapawi.

-- BERNAMA