Kuwait City - The Ministry of Health (MoH) ended its monopoly of psychiatric hospitals by laying down conditions for establishing private psychiatric clinics, reports Al-Wasat daily. As per Medical Licensing Department's criteria, a copy of which was sent to Minister of Health Ali Al-Barrak, any would-be proprietor should be a Kuwaiti citizens who holds a PhD and board (diplomate) certificate. Also, the clinic should be situated on ground or at the most first floor to prevent suicides among patients.
The clinic should have one room each for examination and brain stripe, in addition to equipment for stripping and blood pressure, said a source, adding "medical reports should be in line with regulations of the ministry and families of patients should authorize patients' transfer to such clinics." Finally, the clinic should have enough medicines to treat patients, added the source.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health Ali Al-Barrak has directed nomination of the Assistant Undersecretary for Technical Affairs Dr Khalid Al-Sahlawi as the Secretary-General for Al-Haj mission, reports Al-Anba quoting MoH source as saying. Sources added that Al-Sahlawi by his nomination becomes the first Assistant Undersecretary to head the Haj mission after the country's liberation from Iraqi occupation to succeed the Manager of Administration for Medical Emergency Dr Mohammad Al-Sharhan who had earlier declined to head the latest mission. A 280-member Kuwaiti medical Haj mission team travels to the Holy Land, Makkah next month to provide Kuwaiti caravans round the clock medical services, sources added.
© Arab Times 2008
