Angry patient assaults hospital official

KUWAIT: Ongoing construction works at the new Sabah Hospital’s project. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Kuwait Medical Association (KMA) strongly condemned the assault against an Amiri hospital official and called for holding the assailant legally accountable. KMA Secretary General Dr Mohammad Al-Qena'e said that assaulting doctors and medical staff proves that the current law is incapable of protecting them. Qena'e demanded using harsh punishments against those who assault doctors and medical staff on duty and urged the health minister and the parliament to pass the medicine practice bill that had been prepared by a joint ministerial committee over a year, which includes penalties for the assailants. Qena'e called for increasing security at various hospitals and urged all assaulted doctors to sue the assailants noting that KMA provides lawyers to do so free of charge. A patient who had insisted on getting a restricted medicine had attacked the director of Amiri Hospital Ali Al-Alanda with a stick. Alanda, who suffered a broken arm as a result of the attack, had explained to the patient that the medicine is dangerous and must be administered by a doctor, but he was not convinced and attacked him, according to the police report. The patient was charged accordingly.

New hospital

Headed by Director of the Plan Preparations and Follow-up Soad Al-Awadh, The Supreme Council for Planning and Development's follow up team visited the new Al-Sabah Hospital project's site yesterday. Awadh stressed that over 21 percent of the project has been completed and that it is expected to be finished on schedule by August 2018. She added that the project's total cost is KD 179 million and that the hospital will include four buildings and parking spaces for over 1,275 vehicles. "The hospital will include 617 beds and serve large numbers of patients in Al-Sabah Medical Zone and the surrounding areas."

Jaber Causeway

Assistant Undersecretary for Road Engineering at the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) Ahmad Al-Hassan said that 71 percent of the Jaber Al-Ahmed Causeway (Subbiah Spur) project design, construction and maintenance had been completed so far. Hassan added that minister Abdul Rahman Al-Mutawa gave orders to cooperate with other state department and remove all obstacles that might delay the project. The Project will act as Kuwait's gateway into developing the northern regions of the country, and help realize His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah's vision to turn Kuwait into a regional and international commercial and financial hub. He added that the spur will link Kuwait to the projected Madinat Al-Harir (Silk City) megaproject with a total cost of KD 738,750,000. It will include a sea bridge that starts from Shuwaikh Port and the Free Trade Zone, goes through Kuwait Bay to the west, passes by the Um Al-Namel Island to Doha, then links with Doha Expressway, with a total length of 12.4 km. Hassan said the project consists of a seven-km sea bridge with two intersections, and has the same specs of the main causeway (Subbiya Spur).

The list

The National Assembly's Secretary General Allam Al-Kandari strongly denied social media reports about a list including the names of previous ministers and lawmakers that are allegedly issued by the secretariat general. "The parliament is not responsible for statements made from unofficial sources," he said, urging users of social media networks to verify and be more accurate on reporting about the parliament activities.

Licenses' validity

The Journalism and Publication Sector at the Information Ministry issued ministerial decision number 176/2016 upon which the validity of licenses given to individuals and companies (as per article 3 of the publications law) will be doubled from two to four years to be renewed for similar periods.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi