Official Spokesman for MOH, Dr. Khalid Marglani revealed that a Hospital for Mental Health and De-addiction will be established with the capacity of 500 beds at a total cost of 350 million SR. This hospital will substitute Al-Amal Complex for Mental Health, where mental health beds will increase to reach 1000 beds.
Dr. Marglani clarified that MOH is working on doubling the mental health and de-addiction beds, where current beds reach 2811 beds and the will be added beds in new hospitals will reach 4150 beds in order to treat large numbers of patients. That is by implementing new projects which includes establishing 16 mental health and de-addiction hospitals in various regions of the Kingdom with the capacity of 200-500 beds per hospital, which will be done soon according to the schedule.
He stressed that MOH is concerned about mental health and de-addiction due to its belief on the right of all categories of the society to get mental health services, which is mentioned in the international conventions and humanitarian laws. In addition, he stated that services provided to mental health patients must be provided as social services to avoid the patients from getting embarrassed when they enter mental health clinics. Media must also cooperate by raising the awareness in order to face misconceptions and introduce the community to the mental disorder as a disorder that any person can get by facing some situations as the case with other organic disorders that needs to be treated.
Moreover, Dr. Marglani added that there are 20 mental health and de-addiction hospitals all over the Kingdom with the capacity of 2811 beds for males and females, where 3 centers of them are specialized to treat addiction and 94 mental health and de-addiction clinics in the general hospitals all over the Kingdom that includes 627 psychiatrists, 406 psychiatric specialists, 724 sociology specialist and 3025 psychiatric nurses.