Medical graduates seek specialized women’s hospital run by women

Five graduates of the Ibn Sina College of Medicine here, who will be conferred their degrees on Sunday, believe that they can start a women’s hospital with only women doctors, technicians and administrators.“The dream of every Saudi woman is to go to women doctors when they fall ill or are pregnant,” ENT specialist Dr. Ala Al-Jefri, a graduate of the college told Arab News on Friday. Al-Jefri added that there is a pressing need for women-only clinics and hospitals providing all specialties particularly related to women’s ailments.“An exclusive hospital for women run by women is not an impossible idea because more than 1,000 Saudi women doctors in varying specializations are passing out from government and private medical colleges in the Kingdom annually,” she said.“Most of the Saudi women patients prefer to be examined by a female doctor, because they feel embarrassed in the presence of men doctors,” Dr. Abrar Sultan, specialist in internal medicine, said.She also called on businessmen to make necessary feasibility studies and invest in hospitals fully staffed by women.She also pointed out that the idea is worth considering as the rate of women’s population growth is higher than the rate of men’s growth.Dentist Dr. Ghadah Fakeih said women needed women-only dental clinics more than any other fields of treatment because dental patient needs to be physically very close to a doctor while most women abhor the idea of being close to strange men.Pediatrician Dr. Alia Yamin said businessmen might have hesitated to invest in women-only hospitals because of lack of qualified hands. “But the situation has changed now and there is no dearth for women doctors in all specializations,” she said.