As the story continues to develop, it has taken quite an interesting turn. Hospital staff at the Prince Hamzah Hospital staged a one-hour protest yesterday in defense of the X-ray doctor who has been accused by the Prosecutor General for being involved in the death of Hassan Hafnawi last week. More insight into the case has been provided by the Parliament’s health and environment committee, which concluded that there was “clear negligence by the ER doctor, nursing staff and hospital administration”. Moreover, the committee believes that no search was conducted to actually search for the elderly sick patient who remained trapped behind locked doors in a storage area for the X-ray room.
As evident in the article published by Al-Ghad, there seems to be a struggle between various parties as to who should take the blame. This game of hot potato ranges from the X-ray doctor to the hospital’s administration, nursing staff, the Ministry of Health and the Medical Association that represents Jordanian doctors.
If it isn’t this doctor then an appropriate scapegoat will eventually be found and in the process “justice will be served” and the inefficient, negligible universe this case and others like it belong to, will continue to spin around and around and around and around and around…
an investigation should be undertaken, where everybody involved should be punished! a number of people are to be blamed for not noticing the disappearance of this patient.
I also contend that the hospital closes! People’s lives are valuable and worthy!
i am amazed the hospital director did not offer his resignation yet. this is shameful. it does seem his wasta is so powerful they will stick it to a low-level no-wasta staffer. how could something so horrible take place at a hospital and the director of the hospital stays in office. I am at the end of my wits with the rampant corruption in jordan’s government. this is so blatant it’s an outrage. FIRE THE HOSPITAL DIRECTOR NOW!!!!
id like to see parliament get involved in determining who is responsible
Mo,
actually they are involved..To my surprise there are some good guys in the parliment, but many times they shut them off..
http://sarayanews.com/default.asp?mode=more&NewsID=2780&catID=39
And to add salt to the injury:
From ammannet:
ويرى مدير عام المستشÙÙ‰ عبد العزيز عمرو أنه لا يمكن الØكم على هذه القضية قبل صدور تقرير لجنة التØقيق “لا أستطيع الجزم بوجود خطأ أو إهمال..كما أنني غير مطلع على هذا الموضوع على الإطلاق”.
I can’t understand how a doctor can be found responsible. A doctor’s responsibility is to exaine the patient and check his labs and radiological studes and make a diagnosis and start a treatment.
It’s never been to locate a patient. If he’s told the patient left the hospital then that’s it he doesn’t have to chase him.
نضام خربان ومعÙÙ† من رأسه الي أساسه
والله أنا بقول ØŒØ±Ø§Ø Ø£Ø¨Ø¹Ø« أثنين كندرجيه من Ù…Øلي بلكي نقدر أنØÙ„ مشكله المستشÙÙŠØŒ ما رأيكم؟
Allow me to differ with your response please, and I see many people adopting your approach to these situations.
First, there’s no point in asking for an investigation while also dictating its outcomes; that everyone should be punished, and that someone has to be blamed. You should have stopped at “an investigations hould be undertaken,” and it is being undertaken. An investigation could yield a result in that nothing could have prevented this from happening, or that one person could have done so, or that more than one person could have. Actions to take after that are for the judges to decide if the case is taken to court.
Second, closing the hospital will do more damage than has already happened. The hospital did not only have that one patient, and did not employ only the people who were responsible for this tragedy (if any are). What do you suggest they do with the patients? What do you recommend for the people who become jobless? What do you also suggest for the government to do with the massive building structure that is going to be left in place? Sell it? Along with the equipment?
People need hospitals, and they need THAT hospital too. I think it’s obvious that there is a problem in that hospital. The right thing to do is to get to the bottom of it and fix it, not close the hospital.
thanks for sharing mohanned ..
ok well thats good .. cuz these are exactly the type of cases parliament needs to get involved in .. not things that are waaay over their head like diplomatic relations with israel or conquering denmark
I think pointing the finger, or laying blame on others, is a Jordanian national past-time. No one will own up to their own failings. Nothing is new here.
Obviously this incident, and many others that do not get such publicity, are the result of a dysfunctional system. It is hard to pinpoint individual responsibility. Doctors may be blamed because of the misconception that they are the ones in charge. In reality, they are not.
For example, the radiology doctor’s job is to read the results of x-rays. It is the job of transporters to get the patient to x-ray and back, and the job of the radiology technician to get the imaging done. The doctor does not generally see the patient unless there is a special type of imaging that requires their presence. So I think blaming the doctor is unreasonable, unless there are relevant details that we don’t know.
The hospital administration, on the other hand, is responsible for the overall flow of events and for hiring the right people to do the job, and punishing those who don’t do their job. So it is ultimately responsible for what happened. The fact that the hospital director has no knowledge of the case is astonishing. His resignation is a reasonable outcome.
A more important question is why do we have such failure in the system? How do we fix it? Do we start fixing it from above, i.e. administration and government, or from below, i.e. small employees? In my opinion starting from above is more efficient, as the people in charge can make a bigger difference.
To understand the magnitude of the problem, ask yourself, how does a person become the director of a hospital, or any other government institution, or even a minister? Is it because of their professional skills or because they know the right people?
It is the corrupt system that I blame for what happened.
fuch systems