Sickle cell campaigners have called for an urgent restructuring of health services, as the 46th patient died of complications in Bahrain - just one short of the deadliest year on record.

Bahraini Mahmood Abdulwahab, a 26-year-old from A'ali, died at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) on December 27, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

According to figures compiled by the Bahrain Society for Sickle Cell Anaemia Patients Care, 32 patients died last year, 47 in 2012, 32 in 2011, 35 in 2010, and 25 in 2009.

"Our patients have to wait for a day or sometimes days to get beds," said society spokesman Mohammed Moosa.

"The delays our patients face, waiting for the doctors to come and examine them, is another problem.

"Doctors are unavailable during the weekend and we have many times raised this issue with authorities.

"Some patients are even treated while they are still sitting on the chairs.

"This is complete negligence in the medical field."

He said that Abdulwahab, who was buried in A'ali Cemetery, was taken to the hospital for minor complaints, but his health condition rapidly deteriorated.

"His relatives took him to the accident and emergency department, and they claim he was suffering from ordinary pain with no complications," he added.

"He was kept there for a day due to shortage of beds in the blood diseases centre and other wards.

"On Friday morning, his health condition deteriorated and was given an injection which didn't suit him as his body didn't respond to the treatment.

"The same afternoon, he was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where doctors tried to resuscitate him, but he later died."

An elderly Bahraini woman was the 45th known person to have died of sickle cell complications over the weekend, but Moosa said her family refused to co-operate with authorities and the society.

The GDN reported in February that Bahrain had opened a Hereditary Blood Disorder Centre, which campaigners hoped would improve sickle cell care.

The BD4.7 million ($12.4 million) facility at SMC is the largest of its kind in the region and has the capacity to treat more than 15,000 patients, including 5,000 sickle cell sufferers.

At the facility's opening, the Health Minister announced that the number of babies born with sickle cell disease had dropped to four per 1,000, down from a peak of 21 per 1,000 in the 1980s. - TradeArabia News Service