No launch date yet for first phase - Hospital the largest in the Middle East

KUWAIT: The Jaber Hospital. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced yesterday that it recently received the equipment needed for Jaber Hospital's 120 outpatient and specialized clinics pending launching the first phase of the hospital at a date to be announced later. The ministry added that the departments to be launched in the first phase will include general surgeries, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and ENT, while the wards will be launched in the second phase and the intensive care unit in the third. The hospital is built over an area of 750,000 square meters, includes 13 floors (eight for patients and five for electro-mechanic services), and has a bed capacity of 1,168 beds, a dentistry building, a shelter, a nurse accommodation building, a central electro-mechanic equipment station, the casualty department and an OPDs building. It is considered the largest in the Middle East and sixth worldwide.

New schools

The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) is currently awaiting government's final approval prior to signing the first contract to build new schools, noting that the authority was also reviewing various offers that were so far submitted. KAPP has referred the contract to a supreme committee for approval pending the final State Audit Bureau's approval which might take days or months, as the sources put it. The project involves designing, building, funding, operating and turning over nine schools; five kindergartens, three primary, one intermediate and a six-lane Olympic swimming pool. The new schools will serve 4,350 pupils.

World Bank

The Competition Protection Authority (CPA) has contacted the finance ministry requesting information about the mechanism agreed upon with the World Bank concerning the first phase of CPA's cooperation with the bank. CPA has also requested a copy of the cabinet decisions number 719 dated on September 3, 1995 and number 421 dated on May 13, 2007 pertaining the mechanism used prior to 2014, in which the ministry did explain the terms of cooperation with the World Bank.

By A Saleh