KUWAIT CITY, July 10: The Ministry of Health led by Dr Hilal Al-Sayer is waiting for approval of the recommendation it forwarded to the Council of Ministers to implement anti-smoking law and the mechanism for its implementation at all public places, reports Al-Rai daily.
The daily, quoting a source, disclosed the proposed decision requires cooperation among the Health Ministry and its Interior counterpart for its accomplishment. “The proposal includes fines of upto KD 50, and the amount may be increased if possible”, he stated, saying the Ministry of Interior will be in charge of the fines’ collection when violations are committed, and the outcome will be posted at the ministry’s website.
Projects
In the meantime, the Natural Medicine Hospital is carrying out expansion projects and other plans. The hospital has completed infrastructural projects for the new hospital, which will be built opposite the old one. The new hospital will have advanced medical departments and equipment. Meanwhile, the ministry has renovated the artificial limbs center, which includes gates, rooms and a plant.
In another development, the Ministry of Health has uncovered the anomalous activities of one of its employees, along with two others from an insurance company and a private hospital, who are involved in the alleged embezzlement of public funds amounting to millions of dinars, reports Al-Seyassah daily quoting sources.
Six months after grappling with the problems of corruption and depletion of the public treasury to the tune of KD 2.4 million through an item on the exemption of employees in hospitals and private clinics from the payment of health insurance fees, sources disclosed the ministry discovered a scam through which the alleged beneficiaries have been misusing the health insurance organization to achieve personal goals.

Sources revealed a three-member team has purportedly registered 47,000 workers in a private hospital to collect from them KD 54 each for their health insurance. Sources stated the workers are exempted from paying this fee but the team has taken advantage of their ignorance of the law.
Hospital
The daily has also obtained copies of documents, showing that the team includes an Arab employee in an insurance company, an official at a private hospital, and a ministry worker, who had been registering 350 employees in a private hospital daily or a total of 42,000 within six months. It is surprising that none of the health departments noticed the questionable registration of such a large number of workers in such a short period.
Sources said an assistant undersecretary at the ministry summoned Tuesday the Health Insurance Department director, Government Registration Department director and a representative from the Public Services Company to shed light on the issue. Sources affirmed the ministry will take the necessary action against the employees once proven that they have violated the law.