Dhaman hires staff to operate primary clinics

KUWAIT: The Health Assurance Hospitals Company (Dhaman) is currently recruiting various staff needed to operate the company’s primary healthcare clinics and hospitals and medical departments and technical and backup service staff needed for IT and administrative affairs. Notably, Dhaman has already completed preparing and equipping primary care clinics, which are currently being operated on a trial basis to check their readiness to provide medical services. Dhaman was established as a public-private-partnership (PPP) entity to build hospitals and clinics that provide medical services for Kuwait’s expatriate community, and that as part of a major plan that would also see public medical facilities allocated exclusively for Kuwaiti citizens.

Property owned

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled stressed that the total value of property owned by the ministry is KD 630 million including KD 574 million in property owned overseas and KD 56 million in Kuwait. He added that the total value of rent paid in seven foreign cities is KD 17.8 million.

Responding to a parliamentary inquiry by MP Thamer Al-Suwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled explained that the ministry owns property worth KD 269 million in Europe and America, KD 139 million in Asia and Africa and KD 108 million in the Arab world. He also explained that locally, the ministry owns four buildings in Sharq, Shuwaikh and Salmiya, in addition to the Foreign Diplomatic Institute with a total value of KD 55 million.

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said that the ministry is currently working on assessing its budget according to actual contracts and that the proposed budget for 20172018 is KD 16,055,000, while the finance ministry only approved KD 14 million. In addition, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled stressed that the project to reinforce Kuwait’s efforts in human rights has been adopted within the ministry’s five-year developmental plan through holding seminars and workshops to help spread the culture of human rights in Kuwait.

94,713 applications

The Public Authority for Housing Welfare currently executing 38 projects with a total value of KD 1.3 billion, deputy director for execution affairs Ali Al-Hubail said, adding that total housing applications have retreated to only 94,713. Hubail further indicated that law number 113/2014 helped overcome all hurdles, with land allocation on top, as enough land had been provided to build over 225,000 units in five gigantic residential cities including Mutlaa and Southern Sabah Al-Ahmad. Hubail said rocky terrain was one of the obstacles faced in the Mutlaa project and that 12,000 tons of explosives had to be used in digging for the foundations. Separately, Kuwait Municipality’s deputy director for Capital and Jahra governorate affairs Faisal Al-Jumaa has completed preparing a proposal to amend the conditions of construction and specifications of residential complexes outside and within Kuwait City. The proposed conditions include building commercial service facilities in a residential complex to overlook inside streets and not expressways or highways.

Exams’ rescheduling

Some of subject supervisors at the Education Ministry have informed concerned heads of departments in primary schools to have all curriculums completed by April 18 instead of April 25, said informed sources. The sources added that supervisors want to finish all lessons on this date just in case the Education Ministry reschedules the final exams and holds them a week earlier, which is likely to happen for grades 5 to 11 to avoid coinciding with those of grade 12. The sources added said primary schools have already started changing their plans to meet the deadline set by the supervisors, noting that this will cut the actual schooling time left in the second term to around two months.

Wedding halls

The Ministry of Social Affairs’ community development manager Nadia Al-Azmi said a memo had been made to interconnect the ministry to various ministries concerned with wedding halls with the aim of facilitating and accelerating transactions. Azmi said the department runs 22 community centers in various governorates, including the latest in Mangaf, which provides women with special training in various crafts. She added that new centers are planned to open in new cities. Azmi denied any plans to increase the fees collected for booking wedding halls at the time being.