Kuwait Ministry of Health to Employ 1,500 foreign Nurses

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has prepared a memo on its needs of doctors and technical medical staff who should be hired to operate new hospitals and clinics, said informed sources, noting that the memo was sent to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for approval. They said the memo shows that MoH needs more than 500 doctors and over 1,500 nurses, radiology technicians and other support medical staff members from India, Philippines and other Asian countries. The sources explained that the aforementioned numbers exclude contracts with specialized companies to provide extra nursing and support staff.

In a different concern, the sources said MoH has started laying off expats working in administrative positions to replace them with citizens, leaving only a few expats in such positions until they become 100 percent Kuwaitized within two years. The sources stressed that MoH had repeatedly informed CSC that it would not be able to Kuwaitize medical and nursing staff within five years like it demanded because it will take at least 10 years for Kuwait graduates to meet the need of staff.

Labor allowance
The Manpower and Government Restructuring Program’s (MGRP) Director Fauzi Al-Majadali yesterday announced that the national labor support allowances and salaries will be deposited in citizens’ accounts by yesterday itself. Notably, March salaries had been delayed and the finance ministry strongly denied its responsibility for the delay.

Power outages
The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) blamed power outages that were reported yesterday in parts of Andalus, Doha, Ferdous, Riggae and Nahdha to a malfunction in Ardhiya power plant A. The ministry issued a statement noting that the power outage started at 10:01 am and power was restored at 11:10 am.

Removing obstacles
Kuwait Municipality Director Ahmed Al-Manfouhi will preside over a meeting that the supreme coordination committee holds today to discuss removing obstacles delaying some projects, such as the northern and southern regional highway and the railway.

45 kg of foul food destroyed
Public Authority for Food and Nutrition inspectors destroyed 45 kg of foul fish and meat and filed 23 citations in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, said Farwanya inspectors’ manager Sattam Al-Sehali, explaining that the citations included handling food items without a health certificate, hiring laborers who do not have the certificate, selling inedible food items and violating cleanliness conditions.

By A Saleh and Meshaal Al-Enezi