KUWAIT CITY: The Ministry of Health is currently studying a mechanism to reduce the cost of overseas treatment for citizens, reports Al-Anba daily quoting sources. Sources disclosed this move is part of ongoing efforts to rationalize expenditures in the ministry, especially after the accumulation of unpaid hospital bills in health offices abroad – amounting to about KD145 million.

Sources said the Cabinet has instructed the ministry to coordinate with its finance counterpart in order to cover deficiency in the overseas treatment budget for fiscal 2017/2018 and put in place an effective mechanism to settle the bills until the issuance of a law on the supplementary budget.

Meanwhile, Health Minsiter Dr Bassel Humoud Hamad Al-Sabah issued a ministerial decision declaring ‘uncertain’ Hepatitis C cases as ‘medically unfit’ in line with regulations on the medical examination of expatriates, reports Al-Rai daily quoting sources.

Sources explained that expatriates who tested negative for Hepatitis C are medically fit to work while those who tested positive are medically unfit. However, the test results of some were neither negative nor positive, so based on the decision mentioned above they were declared ‘medically unfit’ and should be deported as per the regulations on the medical examination of expatriates, sources added

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