KUWAIT: Capital health zone director Dr Afrah Al-Sarraf announced commencing allocation of morning OPD visits at Amiri Hospital exclusively for citizens and receiving expats only in the afternoons. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 'Athletes' Nutrition' week, held under the auspices of Capital Governor Lt Gen Thabet Al-Muhanna, Sarraf said that following the success of this segregation policy at Rawda polyclinic, more Capital polyclinics would follow suit.

Notably, the OPD segregation policy was first implemented two years ago at Jahra Hospital, where OPDs only receive citizens in the mornings, when all specialists and consultants are in office, and receive expat patients and citizens who wish to do so during the afternoons.

Separately, internal medicine and diabetes consultant at the Amiri Hospital Dr Abdul Nabi Al-Attar said that recent statistics showed that the number of Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti diabetics amounted to about 400,000, and treatment of each of them costs about $2,000 per year. Attar said in a statement yesterday during the 7th awareness campaign for the prevention of diabetes organized by the hospital under the auspices of Minister of Health Dr Ali Al-Obaidi at the Avenues Mall that all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are on the list of the top 10 countries with the highest prevalence of the disease. He urged citizens and residents to visit the awareness campaign for testing glucose, blood pressure, blood sugar, triglycerides, cholesterol and carrying out a retina exam.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi and Agencies