KUWAIT: The health ministry finally responded to calls to act and end the crisis resulting from halting quick services at health insurance departments that had resulted in unbearable crowds and long queues outside these departments. The delay has affected transactions of thousands of companies, Al-Rai said in a report published yesterday. During a meeting held on the instructions of Health Minister Jamal Al-Harbi, who is currently aboard, on Tuesday evening between the health ministry and the Public Services Company (PSC), both sides agreed to resume swift services for companies' transactions.

Health Ministry Undersecretary Dr Khaled Al-Sahlawi stressed that although the minister was abroad to attend WHO meetings and was checking on Kuwaiti patients receiving medical treatment in various countries, he was very keen on resolving the problem and contacted both the health ministry and the company's officials to reach a legal solution.

Sahlawi said he met PSC CEO Musaed Al-Saeedi and agreed on resuming the quick services from yesterday at the Jabriya health insurance center. Sahlawi strongly commended PSC, noting that, as a Kuwait Finance House subsidiary company, it has been providing the service for 14 years without costing the ministry or the state budget anything.

Saeedi stressed that out of its strategic partnership with the health ministry,  PSC had not cost public funds a single dinar and that it had been collecting health insurance fees and depositing them in the health ministry's account at the Central Bank daily in return for nominal fees collected from expats per transaction. Saeedi added that he will meet Harbi on Sunday to review the documents PSC had previously sent to the health ministry to resume the service.