KUWAIT CITY, Feb 1: While health insurance revenues for expatriates recorded the second highest collection rate in the history of the Ministry during the previous fiscal year, health sources said the rate of collection of money due to the Ministry of Health from some government agencies, related to health insurance fees for expatriate workers, continued to be low or nonexistent, reports Al-Rai daily. The sources pointed out that the balance of the account of the amounts due to the Ministry for the value of health insurance fees with government agencies has ballooned to more than 15 million dinars during the previous fiscal year, without effective follow-up from the Ministry to urge those authorities to pay.

In contrast to the low collection of the insurance value from government agencies, the health insurance revenues collected from expatriates during the previous fiscal year were the second highest revenues in the history of the ministry at a value of 1.2 million dinars, after recording more than 107 million dinars in the fiscal year 2019-2020.

The figures showed that the Ministry of Health collected about 490.6 million dinars for health insurance services during the past 5 years. On the other hand, the Director of the Nursing Services Department at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health, Dr. Iman Al-Awadi, affirmed the Ministry’s keenness to exchange experiences with the Jordanian side, due to its distinguished nursing competencies of a good and varied level that deserve praise, appreciation and contracting with it. This came in a statement made by Al-Awadi, after her meeting with Kuwaiti Ambassador Aziz Al-Daihani, where he headed a health committee visiting Jordan, to select about 120 male and female nurses to work in the Ministry of Health.

Al-Awadi explained that those with expertise who will be selected in filling part of the deficit in the nursing cadre in Kuwait, their experience and competencies are being verified, through personal interviews and written exams for applicants, to fill these positions. She pointed out that the interviews that the committee conducts with qualified persons include areas required by the Kuwaiti health sector, including specialization in dialysis, operations, intensive care, internal diseases and cancer. For his part, Ambassador Al-Daihani said that the Ministry of Health is keen to benefit from Arab expertise and cadres. He indicated that the number of Jordanians in Kuwait is estimated at 62,000 Jordanians