KUWAIT CITY, March 22: MP Mohammed Al-Jabri has called on the Minister of Health Dr Mohammad Al-Haifi to resign immediately or face interpellation. He was reacting to reports about medical errors in government hospitals in recent times. The Parliamentarian cited the case of a 22-year-old Kuwaiti Batoul Al-Anazi as evidence. He explained, father of Al-Batoul telephoned him recently and informed him about what happened at the Jahra Hospital a few days ago. He said his daughter was admitted to the hospital because of high proportion of ammonia in the blood and specialist doctors at the hospital said she should undergo ‘blood washing’. After this was done the ammonia ratio stabilized and came to normal at 58 per cent.

He added instead of discharging the patient one of the doctors did another blood wash two hours later and this was the fatal error to a number of doctors. This led to immediate kidney failure and the patient went into coma. Al-Jabri stressed the Minister of Health must bear political and moral responsibilities and resign. Otherwise, “we will hold him accountable.”

Meanwhile, a report issued by the Ittejahat for Studies and Research (Ittejahat) on the occasion of the current National Assembly completing 90 days disclosed 21 MPs had issued 61 threats to submit grilling requests against 12 ministers, including the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak. The report noted the threats were at its peak between mid-January and February. The report explained First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud, Oil Minister Hani Hussein and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mustapha Al- Shamali were the most vulnerable to threats.

Al-Hmoud received 14 threats from 10 lawmakers, 13 threats from five MPs and Al-Shamali 10 from five MPs, It added MPs Faisal Duwaisan and Nawaf Fuzai targeted the Interior Minister. They issued seven threats on the issue of security lapses, lawlessness and unsatisfied performance by the ministry. MP Sa’adoun Hamad Al-Otaibi issued about nine threats against the Minister of Oil concerning violations in the promotions and the Dow Chemical deal, while Al-Fuzai targeted the finance minister with four threats which focused on the issue of loans. According to the report, the Prime Minister received six threats from MPs Hussein Al-Qallaf (three threats), Yaqoub Al-Sane (two) and Abdul Hameed Dashti (one). They complained government reluctance to attend a meeting on Feb 8, 2013, ignoring complaints of Ministry of Information and addressing the issue of stateless.

The Health Minister Mohammed Al- Haifi received four threats linked to violations in overseas medical treatment and medical errors and negligence. The Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Nayef Al-Hajraf received threats for the marks for acceptance at Kuwait University and Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and lack of probing director of a school for committing an immoral offense. Minister of Planning and Development and State Minister for National Assembly Affairs Rola Dashti received grilling threats because of standing against some MPs during the sessions and not responding to their parliamentary queries. The report indicated ministers of Communications Salem Al-Othaina and Public Works and Electricity and Water Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim and Social Affairs and Labor, Zhikra Al-Rashidi received two threats each, while ministers of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh and Defense Sheikh Ahmed Al-Khalid received only one threat each. The report added in 90 days four MPs presented grilling requests against four ministers. MP Al-Qallaf was the first to submit grilling against Minister of Communications Al-Othaina just after 52 days of the life of the current parliament on some violations in the ministry.