Health Minister Dr Jamal Al-Harbi

KUWAIT: Health Minister Dr Jamal Al-Harbi said health services fees for visiting expats will go into effect this month. He said he reviewed the revised service price list, and based on this he took the implementation decision.

Harbi had announced earlier that an important meeting will be held after Eid Al-Fitr with the health ministry undersecretaries’ council to discuss increasing fees for expats, which will be raised gradually, starting with those on visit visas, then for resident expats.

He said fees will be raised to be close to those at private hospitals. Fee increases were supposed to take effect in mid- February, after the undersecretaries’ council approved a recommendation based on a study to review service fees and examinations the state provides to visiting expats, bearing in mind that fees will be 20 percent less than those in the private sector.

Health sources said at the time that the medical services fees had not been reviewed for a long time and the costs of these services represent a burden on the state’s budget. Harbi also said a South Korean delegation will visit Kuwait in August to conduct a survey and an integrated study to carry out the electronic linkage of health facilities’ project. He said the delegation’s visit will include field visits to hospitals and primary care centers to prepare for the study on the time the process will take. — Al-Rai