TEAMS of amateur volunteers with rudimentary training are helping treat protesters injured in clashes with police, sources told the GDN. However, a senior health official said peoples lives were being put in danger if they did not receive proper care. Health Ministry Hospital Affairs Assistant Under-Secretary Dr Waleed Al Manea issued the warning after the alleged shooting of Mohsen Abdulla, 33, last week in Bilad Al Qadeem. Mr Abdullas family told the GDN that he was being treated by volunteers at an unknown location, but Dr Al Manea said such practices could endanger peoples lives. If there is a medical emergency, the case should be reported to a hospital and, if needed, the hospital will report the matter to the police, which is the law, he said. But we reiterate that nobody will be arrested from the hospital. The law would deal with them after the necessary medical treatment, if needed. But the priority is saving lives and we urge families to bring the injured to hospitals and not leave them with volunteers or medics in amateur clinics - this may lead to unpleasant consequences. He added that health workers who provided medical training to unlicensed practitioners operating in illegal clinics were breaking the law. It is absolutely against the law and no medic is legally permitted to train anyone to handle any such cases, he told the GDN. Licensed or not, medics cannot train volunteers to handle medical conditions. Dr Al Manea added that he planned to reach out to Mr Abdullas family and attempt to convince them that he should be admitted to a proper hospital. If this incident is true, we need to have him treated professionally in a hospital - be it Salmaniya Medical Complex or a private hospital, he said. We have volunteers and activists who will contact the family soon. Sources said that amateur medics, or volunteers, deliberately withheld information on the whereabouts of those being treated. These volunteers are usually seen in areas where there are regular clashes and trained in first aid and other immediate steps in case of a medical emergency, sources told the GDN. They are also trained to move the injured to clinics or houses where they are then treated in hiding by medics. These volunteers are usually the ones who inform families of the injured. They dont make phone calls or communicate via e-mail, but will approach the family in person. The family will be kept posted on the condition of the injured at regular intervals by these volunteers, who keep changing, but they will never leave a contact. We do not know who trains them, whether they are paid or how they transport the injured and medicines. Meanwhile, National Health Regulatory Authority chief executive officer Dr Baha Eldin Fateha said the secrecy made illegal clinics hard to locate. We do inspections, but by law the privacy of a home cannot be disrupted and even if we have some information, we cannot go and inspect, he said. We need proper legal backing with evidence and a court order to do this.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 06:04:13 +0000
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