The Ministry of Health caught red-handed an Arab ophthalmic doctor who converted a villa to a surreptitious eye clinic where unlicensed operations were conducted in an unhygienic environment and without proper surgical tools in Madinah on Friday.

A team of inspectors from several departments including the Public Prosecution and the health affairs raided the villa owned by the doctor’s wife on Friday, while the doctor was treating a number of patients belonging to different nationalities. The inspectors found that the doctor used the same tool on all patients without sterilizing. The medical wastes were thrown away randomly at the same location. The patients of the doctor were admitted to the building secretly, the inspectors learned. It was also noticed that the patients were admitted to the building in groups.

The ministry received a complaint about the doctor and his illegal clinic from a Saudi ophthalmologist who discovered that one of his recent female patients was a victim of the wrong surgery conducted by the doctor. It was reported that this doctor served some time ago as a consultant surgeon at a medical complex in the city.

Director of the Madinah Health Commitment Administration Dr. Ola Mufti said a doctor was reported to be using a house in Al-Iskan to treat patients and was conducting operations inside the house. One of the patients was injured by a wrong operation. After collecting information and coordinating with the Public Prosecution, the doctor was referred to the Public Prosecution to complete the investigation.

The major charges against the doctor included conducting operations in an unlicensed facility, supplying expired medicines and lenses for patients, anesthetizing patients not applying correct procedures and without support, running the clinic in a villa under repair, not sterilizing the operating room and re-using the tools on all patients in an unhygienic manner.

SOURCE : ALBILAD