Long queues irk visitors; Agony as medical tests take hours

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KUWAIT CITY, March 29: The Migrant Medical Screening Center in Sabah Health Zone suffers from severe overcrowding, even though the Ministry of Health is continuing with the online appointment booking system to organize the number of visitors per day. However, the challenge on the ground is that the medical tests on migrant workers take hours, amid the suffering of the sponsors from this unjustified delay, from their point of view, reports Al-Rai daily. Visiting the center that serves the Capital and Hawally governorates, the daily noticed the crowding from the entrance of the modern building that was designated for the medical screening center. The opinions of some of the visitors were obtained, and a common complaint in all their opinions was the lack of organization.

Booked
According to a visitor Habib Mahdi, he had booked an appointment for the medical examination of his domestic worker. However, there was a shortage of employees at the center. Also, the blood testing facilities and X-ray devices do not cover the hundreds of migrants who visit the center to conduct a medical screening. He stressed the need for more attention in the centers, especially since the number of visitors is increasing but the absorptive capacity of the centers remains the same. Another visitor Abdullatif Al- Shammari said he was surprised his domestic worker was not examined. He argued that the medical screening report of his employee was yet to reach the center from her country.

Al-Shammari asked, “How did the Kuwaiti embassy attest the worker’s visa to enter Kuwait without verifying her medical condition? Who is responsible if the worker suffers from a contagious disease?” Another visitor Saad Karim said, “Despite the continuation of the process to book appointments in advance for the screening, the crowding is unusual. It is unreasonable that I entered the center at 9:00am and left at 12.30pm. It took that long to examine the worker. The catastrophe is that the results are released after two weeks. If the worker is infected with any disease, it constitutes a great danger to individuals and families.”

Increase
He called for the need to increase the number of employees in the migrant medical screening centers, and increase the efficiency of the devices so that the results can be issued within a maximum period of 48 hours so that the society can be protected from infectious diseases, “especially since we are about to open up to bring in domestic workers and others”. In addition, another visitor Umm Salem expressed her dissatisfaction with the congestion. She stressed the need for arranging special facilities for citizens to complete their transactions, especially the elderly, people with disabilities and women who are keen to complete their transactions themselves.

Umm Salem said, “The center suffers from a lack of parking spaces, as the yard opposite it, which was designated as parking spaces for visitors, has been closed. This exposes the visitors to committing traffic violations. After waiting for hours for the worker to be screened, we got out of the center and ended up finding a traffic citation pinned on the car window.” In this regard, the process for conducting medical screening of migrants requires submission of a request for medical screening by booking an appointment through the Ministry of Health’s website.

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