KUWAIT CITY, March 19: A total of 14,509 nurses belonging to 38 nationalities are working at the Ministry of Health (MoH), Al-Qabas daily quoted Director of Nursing Administration Dr Awatef Al-Qattan as saying.
Out of these, only 8 percent are Kuwaitis while 92 percent are non-Kuwaitis, said Al-Qattan, adding “on an average, there are 48 nurses for every 10,000 people.” Dr Al-Qattan disclosed the above statistics during the World Nurses’ Day celebrations, which coincided with Gulf Nurse Day, on March 13.  She said the strategy of nursing sector for 2008-2010 includes important aspects, such as having the correct ratio of nurses to the population in the country.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said it is not responsible for postponing the construction of some health centers which were to be built with donors’ funds. The postponement was due to authorities’ failure to allocate land for these projects and also due to donors themselves, it said.
As many as 10 projects were suspended pending approvals, allocation of land and in some cases, due to donors’ inability to get certain transactions processed.
A total of 44 projects will be implemented using donors’ funds, including a center for conducting heart surgeries in children at the Chest Hospital, private cancer treatment center for children, a private dermatology clinic, besides health centers in many areas.