Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

They treated me well at KFUPM - especially when I needed open heart surgery at Al-Sa'ad Hospital in Dhahran in 2004. I survived. They were nice to me.

[sicklyman]

in fact you lasted longer than the hospital you recovered in...

[eslteacher2014]

[sicklyman]

[scot47]

In 2003/4 I had some surprises. I was told in Dhahran that I had Coronary Heart Disease and that i needed a bypass. I got a second opinion in Bulgaria, where I lived at the time. That was the first surprise and I really did not want to believe that I needed heart surgery.

The second surprise was when I was told that I could have the operation in Dhahran.. A very competent team of South Africans of different ethnicities carried it out. I remember particularly the two nubile Zulu nurses who looked after me in intensive care. And the English South African surgeon who led the team.

My operation was a success. Bill Clinton had one at the same time. He had to go back and have his redone. I told my students at KFUPM that this proved that Saudi hospitals were better than those in the USA. My joke gained me several brownie points with my cynical students.

My treatment and hospital stay was covered by Health Insurance which was voluntary. A group of us at KFUPM agreed to pay a few hundred a month for good health cover through a broker. In subsequent years the boiker had to give up because not enough teachers at KFUPM were prepared to pay for proper health insurance. To me this was a reflection on the negative attitude of the skinflints and 500-clubbers who were my colleagues in that place.

For those without health insurance treatment was available at the University Teaching Hospital. I visited people there and would not opt for any treatment there. Certainly not for open-heart surgery. To get treatment in the University Teaching Hospital it was, in my day, necessary to arrange intervention from the Dean or Rector at very high level. Even with that, treatment for dependants was routinely declined.

I am sorry that al-Sa'ad Hospital is now closed. It did seem too good to last. The story from my past is also a reminder to me and others of the perils of making MONEY the most important thing in your life. Too mean to get medical cover ? Be prepared to pay the ultimate price,

[dragonpiwo]

It's not the VAT I worry about. In the GCC as a whole it's the tax they put on things expats like doing. Paid 11 quid for a Guiness the other day, Skype now blocked in the UAE. Expats foodstuffs extortionate. Silly rental prices even when buildings are half empty. Cigarettes doubled in price this year and soft drinks went up 50%.In the UAE this 5% VAT got added at every level of the supply chain it seems.

[nomad soul]

[scot47]

Nomad, you persuade the misers that are pervasive in the region.

[siologen]

[scot47]

I always thought KSA was better than the Emirates.

[veiledsentiments]