Health minister: Treat critical patients first, collect fees later
Hashem: Charge expats KD 1,000 for driving license, KD 500 for annual renewal
KUWAIT: Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah issued a ministerial decision prioritizing the treatment of urgent cases at all hospitals without any delay in diagnosis or providing immediate treatment in order to save patients’ lives and stabilize their condition. The minister’s resolution emphasized fees should only be collected once the patients are out of danger.
In other decisions, Sheikh Basel decided to transfer the citizen service department under the direct jurisdiction of the ministry undersecretary. He also ordered forming a special committee to investigate financial violations in a contract signed with a medical company as well as delays in not responding to Audit Bureau reports about financial violations. Sheikh Basel also ordered re-forming the committee entrusted with inspecting dental services. In addition, the minister canceled a previous decision referring the head of the Amiri Hospital’s physiotherapy department Najla Al-Shami to prosecution.
Meanwhile, MP Safa Al-Hashem filed a parliamentary proposal to resolve the problem of traffic jams in Kuwait, calling to impose exorbitant fees on expats when issuing driving licenses, renewing them and registering vehicles in their names, in addition to restrictions on renewing the registration of expats’ vehicles older than 10 years.
The proposal, addressed to the speaker of the Assembly, said, “In coordination with the government’s plan to expand and develop road grids and in view of the current traffic congestions resulting from ongoing construction on various roads, I propose the following:
• Collecting KD 1,000 to issue a driving license to expats.
• Collecting an annual fee of KD 500 for renewing these licenses.
• Collecting a fee of KD 500 and multiples thereof from expats owning more than one vehicle.
• Automatically linking expats’ driving licenses to their work permits to prevent forgery and exemptions - the license validity is annulled in case of not meeting any of the issuance conditions.
• Banning the renewal of expats’ vehicle registrations if the car is more than 10 years old.”