Emergency wing of Kuwaiti Hospital turns away sick child

SHARJAH - An ailing child was turned away from the Emergency Department of the Kuwaiti Hospital in the middle of the night, allegedly because "no paediatrician was available", and he was instead referred to another hospital.

Asma Ali Zain

Published: Wed 26 Apr 2006, 11:29 AM

Last updated: Thu 20 Oct 2022, 2:37 PM

When Amina K. took her seven-year-old child, who was suffering from severe ear pain, to the emergency department of the Kuwaiti Hospital in Sharjah yesterday, she was turned away because “no paediatrician was available.”

The doctor on duty also reportedly said that she had orders that children could not be examined at the hospital, so the child should be taken to the Al Qasimiya Hospital.

“It was the middle of the night and my child was suffering from severe ear pain. I tried all my methods to help relieve the pain, but was unable to. At that moment, I could think of no other place to take my child except to the emergency section in Kuwaiti Hospital,” said Amina, the mother of the sick child.

“But when we waited for over half an hour, we were told that the hospital was not taking any cases related to children for the past three months, because there was no paediatric doctor available,” she explained. “With my child writhing in pain, I had to rush from one hospital to another in the middle of the night. According to my knowledge, an emergency department cannot refuse any patient on any pretext,” she said, adding that the least the doctor could have done was to examine the child and recommend some painkillers until we got a detailed examination done.

Amina also said that her earlier visit to the Al Qasimiya Hospital had been in vain because she, being an expat, was referred to the Kuwaiti Hospital. “I always knew that only UAE nationals are treated in the Al Qasimiya Hospital, therefore, I headed to the Kuwaiti Hospital,” she added.

Accepting that the child should have been attended to, Amina Karam, speaking on behalf of the Director of Kuwaiti Hospital, said: “Yes, the child could have been given medicine to stop the pain, but all doctors have been asked not to examine children because we do not have any specialists or clinics at the hospital, including paediatricians or oncologists. We only examine patients that are really serious, and such normal cases are no longer dealt with at the emergency section.”

The disheartened mother questioned the existence of an emergency department in any hospital, saying: “Emergency departments are not supposed to turn away patients for whatever reason, because these are the only place that a patient runs to when in need of medical aid.”