Quota for recruiting expat doctors poses challenge to health delivery – Policy breeds corruption

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KUWAIT CITY, April 2: The health system in Kuwait is facing numerous challenges, mainly due to the approval of quota for recruitment of expatriates as doctors, nurses and technicians, Al-Jarida daily quoted a report released by the Ministry of Health recently.

The ministry’s report revealed that the policy has led to corruption in the procedures for appointing employees, citing bribery in the nursing sector, instability of manpower and constant change. It attributed instability of expatriate workers in the health sector to the failure to closely monitor medical errors.

The report pointed out that the right solution is to increase the admission rate in the Faculty of Medicine and other relevant faculties, in addition to selecting the most qualified among the applicants rather than the current method of organizing interviews as formality.

It also cited other challenges such as the construction of hospitals arbitrarily without conducting thorough studies, indicating this is tantamount to wastage of public funds It suggested that health centers should be open 24 hours per day while the primary health doctors must be trained to deal with casualties and to provide them with all the necessary equipment. It also stressed the need to open specialized clinics in all health districts, as well as revising the list of medicines in health centers to be similar to that of public hospitals.

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