Kuwait: The health ministry has no intention of backing away from the decision to impose fees on expats for receiving medicines, as it sees it is necessary to regulate mechanisms behind dispensing medicine and supervising it.

“There are other decisions regarding expatriate patients that will be taken soon, including designating health assurance hospital for expatriates and not receiving them in government hospitals by next year for workers in the private sector. As for workers in the public sector, they will be treated in public hospitals temporarily according to the fees they are also transferred for treatment at private hospitals,” the ministry said.

The health ministry has also announced it has overcome the crisis over shortages of medicine that citizens and residents have been suffering from in the last two months, as the most critical medicines have been secured and new batches will arrive next month. “There is no shortage of vital medicines. They are currently being dispensed to a wide range of patients daily, as the necessary financial budget has been allocated to purchase the required medicines through direct contracts with manufacturers as well as through agents, with the knowledge of the Audit Bureau, Bureau of Financial Controllers and the regulatory authorities in Kuwait,” it said.

“The medicine shortage crisis will not be repeated. The ministry was not the cause of the crisis, which was related to problems facing international companies and local situations, as companies could not fulfill the needs of the market. The budget has increased from KD 490 million last year to KD 520 million this year,” sources revealed to Kuwait Times.

“The ministry has provided new medical stores to support the current medical warehouses. It is heading to establish a medical warehouse for medicines in each governorate. Moreover, the ministry has granted licenses to companies to establish medicine factories in Kuwait in cooperation with competent ministries, but these companies have not yet taken the executive steps to establish these factories,” sources said.

“Licenses were granted to international companies to start producing medicines through their factories in Kuwait,” they added, expecting these steps will contribute significantly to providing medicines throughout the year at reasonable prices.