Health centre ‘stops taking patients’ after evening

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Muharraq North Health Centre stops receiving patients after evening hours despite a 24-hour system being brought in in mid-2022, MP Abdulwahid Qarata said during Parliament’s session yesterday, saying residents are still having to seek care elsewhere as new housing areas in the governorate grow.

He said the centre offers general medical care, dental care, mother and child care, early screening, and clinics for diabetes and long-term illness, with about 65 staff working shifts.

“People are being forced to go to other centres after the evening,” he said.

Issue

Qarata said the issue was not a refusal in principle to sending patients to other sites, but the way staff and services were being placed across Muharraq.

“The first priority should be to direct resources and capabilities to the new residential areas in Muharraq,” he said.

He said a full centre had been built in an older area even though “the population density has shifted to newer areas”, and said health planning should keep pace with that move.

He added that more than 2,000 people took part in a public poll calling for the centre to return to round-theclock service.

Demands

“These demands are still there, and there has still been no response,” he said.

Health Minister, Her Excellency Jaleela Al Sayed, said the ministry puts people’s health first and that its decisions are made through studied plans and strategies meant to protect the public interest and keep care joined up across Bahrain.

“Decisions are not taken out of stubbornness,” she said.