MoH preparing report to amend medicine fee law

KUWAIT: The Health Ministry has prepared a report to be presented to Health Minister Dr Ahmad Al-Awadhi, which includes selling medicine to expatriates at hospitals and clinics instead of paying a fixed KD 5 fee to receive their medicines, even as the report praised the decision to impose higher fees on expatriates for receiving medicine.

“The new report finds the consumption of medicines at the ministry’s health centers and hospitals is still large, and expatriates are still the most who obtain the drugs relative to their number in the country, being twice the number of Kuwaitis. The procedures that monitor medicine waste require tighter control at medical stores as well as government pharmacies,” sources told Kuwait Times.

“There are cases where twice as many medicines are given to expatriates than they need, with the aim of manipulating the payment of fees, as some quantities of medicines are dispensed to an expatriate enough for more than one patient. The report included many cases at hospitals where expatriates are treated who utilize medical devices in addition to x-rays without paying their fees or sometimes paying only once,” the sources added.

“This is done with the connivance of doctors or employees. The ministry is in the process of applying stricter measures to control and prevent such manipulation, and whoever transgresses the rules will face punitive measures,” the sources concluded.

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