Kuwait-UK group to look into Kuwaiti patients’ conditions
Delegation led by Dy FM will fly to Britain today
KUWAIT CITY, June 23, (KUNA): The joint UK-Kuwaiti Steering Group is set to look into the conditions of Kuwaiti patients in the UK, and bilateral cooperation to share expertise and doctors’ mutual visits, a Kuwaiti diplomat said Saturday.
A Kuwaiti delegation, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah, will fly to the UK on Sunday to discuss more facilities to Kuwaiti citizens visiting Britain, including online visa system, Assistant Foreign Minister for Europe Affairs Ambassador Walid Al-Khubaizi said to KUNA.
The group will also address issues pertinent to the promotion of bilateral cooperation in the areas of security, air transport and cybersecurity, he pointed out.
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized recent preparatory meetings on the agenda of the group’s meeting, which is mainly meant to bolster Kuwaiti-UK cooperation, he said.
Other issues related to Kuwaiti students in the UK, together with closer cooperation in the domains of scientific and environment research, cultural and knowledge exchange and academic quality criteria, he added.
Also to be considered during the event are ways and means of pushing forward strategic cooperation between both sides to address common challenges and cement bilateral training and military cooperation, he noted.
Economically, he said both sides will seek to increase trade exchange and joint investments, adding that agreements and memos of understanding would be hammered out in this regard.
The Kuwaiti diplomat commended the distinguished level of Kuwaiti-UK relations, mainly the increasing number of high-level visits from both sides, mentioning in particular a planned visit by Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah to London in July.
It will be a good opportunity for both sides to exchange views on the latest regional and internal developments, along with a number of Arab and Islamic issues, he said.
The joint UK-Kuwaiti Steering Group’s 12th meeting will be held between June 26-27.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Bassel Al-Sabah has issued a circular to all hospitals affiliated to the ministry, instructing to provide medicines to expatriate patients for two months instead of one month for the same charge of KD 10 per visit, reports Al-Anba daily.
Pleased
Expatriate patients were pleased with the decision due to two reasons. The first reason is that issuing medicines for each month had resulted in heavy congestion in the pharmacies and frustration among the patients especially the elderly.
The second reason is that the cost remains unchanged, which means a patient will receive medicines he needs for two months for the amount he used to pay for the medicines he need for one month. In other words, the cost of medicines for expatriate patients has dropped by 50 percent.
The circular included instructions to the doctors to prescribe medicines required for a period of two months to the patients during each visit by the latter.
According to informed sources, the patients who had received prescriptions for monthly medicines six months before the issuance of the circular will need to bring with them prescriptions for two months during their visit to the hospital. They will then get medicines for two months during a single visit instead of two visits to the hospital.
Furthermore, Kuwait’s health ministry said on Saturday that its polio laboratory has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the Middle East’s main center for the testing of the viral disease.
The acknowledgment comes shortly after WHO’s Polio Eradication Program’s regional coordinator Dr Humayun Asghar’s visit to the lab, Dr Majda Al-Qattan, the ministry’s assistant undersecretary of public health services, said in a statement.
“Our facility has been approved by WHO as the regional laboratory for polio testing in the Middle East,” she said, citing that Asghar was impressed by the progress and development of the lab.
She pointed out that the lab had also garnered accreditations by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as well, which ensures the ministry’s commitment to provide quality healthcare.