Article 12 of the Saudi Private Health Institutions Law

This article imposes on health institutions two duties in dealing with infectious diseases:

First: reporting. Every health institution must report any infectious disease case to the competent health authority immediately on diagnosis. Reporting does not wait for later confirmation or the end of treatment but takes place as soon as the diagnosis is made.

Second: referral of quarantine cases. Quarantine cases of infectious diseases are referred directly to Ministry hospitals, with the competent health authority notified of this immediately. That is, the private institution does not keep these cases but refers them.

Note that the text distinguishes between:

• Any infectious disease case: reporting is sufficient.
• Quarantine cases of infectious diseases: both referral to Ministry hospitals and reporting are required.

The article does not specify which diseases are infectious or require quarantine, or the way of reporting; the Implementing Regulations set these requirements.

The Ministry, under Article 1, is the Ministry of Health. The obligation covers "every health institution", that is, hospitals, complexes, clinics, laboratories and the other types in the definitions, so a laboratory that discovers an infectious case is also bound to report.

It is preceded by Article 11, which requires a hospital to be equipped with special isolation rooms among its equipment, and followed by Article 13, which requires clinics and complexes to have a sufficient quantity of emergency medicines and means. An institution facing accountability for delay in reporting would do well to consult a lawyer who specializes in administrative cases.