KUWAIT CITY, Aug 29: Indonesian Ambassador to Kuwait Leena Maryanna has confirmed that the Ministry of Health intends to employ about 1,000 Indonesian medical practitioners like doctors, nurses and technicians who will be assigned in public hospitals and other medical facilities, reports Al-Jarida daily. In a recent press statement, the ministry revealed it is contacting “some countries, including Indonesia, to send medical workers.” Maryanna told the daily “we appreciate any attempt in this regard. The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health has unveiled its plan to recruit doctors, nurses and technicians from Indonesia to work in government health facilities (such as hospitals, clinics, etc).

This recruitment will be based on the memorandum of understanding between the governments of Indonesia and Kuwait.” She added “many Indonesian nurses have been working for more than 20 years in government hospitals. About 300 Indonesian nurses are working in public hospitals and other health facilities. We are in the process of discussing a draft technical arrangement for cooperation in bringing medical personnel from Indonesia to Kuwait.” She also confirmed that “the ministry wants to recruit 500 to 1,000 medical staff; stressing that the Kuwaiti government’s intention matches its Indonesian counterpart’s plan to deploy skilled workers only to Kuwait, such as nurses and technicians.” The ambassador added: “Indonesia has a large number of health institutions where many health care workers like nurses and caregivers have graduated.”

On the method of recruitment, she explained “given that this will be done through the Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of the two countries, the recruitment process will be conducted through a specialized government institution — the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Board in the Republic of Indonesia (BP2MI).” On the other hand, the Health Ministry made it clear in its statement that it does not deal with intermediary companies for the recruitment of nursing staff. This has been its practice since 2018 in accordance with the relevant decisions. It added: “The application for these jobs takes place through memorandums of understanding between the ministry and the concerned government institutions in countries exporting nurses.”