Kuwait’s Ministry of Health is in a suffocating crisis in terms of the supply of effective medicines to sick citizens and expatriates. There is an acute shortage of many drugs in the hospitals, clinics, and dispensaries in all areas and governorates.

The Ministry of Health is blaming the Ministry of Finance, which is playing with our money.

We hope that the proposals and laws of our National Assembly, which fights negative phenomena using Taliban standards, would not be approved.

The proposals to buy debts, pay salaries to housewives, and other bills will cost billions. They also contradict the constitutional principle of justice and equality.

We go back to the pharmacists of our hospitals and clinics that repeatedly tell patients - “This medicine is not available ... Go buy it from outside”.

One of the patients of the largest private hospital went to a private pharmacy and bought four vials of injections for KD 2,400.

He then returned to the private hospital, and was asked to wait for a while to receive the injection.

He then received a message from the Afia insurance company, telling him that the company agreed with the hospital that he would be given one injection for KD 4 to be paid to the nurse.

I sent this sad story to His Excellency the Minister of Health and the officials of the Afia Company. Such incidents occur on a daily basis in Kuwait, and from the many institutions owned by long beards.

One of my friends told me a tragic story, saying the Ministry of Education, which is drowning in an inch of water these days, decided that the mid-year vacation, which we used to refer to as “spring break” and took every year for only 15 days, shall be extended to two months... Yes, two months... with the end of work on December 10 instead of January 2 as per the academic schedule.

Citizens wonder about the reason behind this rush to make students stay at home. And what will the teachers do during that period?

A primary school child has to sit at home until February 5, 2023. What will he do? And how will his mother and father watch him for that long?

We are one of the worst countries in terms of our educational results. Most of our students do not read well in Arabic and English, and do not master handwriting.

Learning has turned out to be happening at home in Kuwait. Parents hire tutors for their children because they are often at home, and so they no longer learn anything in school during an academic year that is the shortest in the world.

The mid-year vacation is a long summer vacation in another country. We thank the dear citizens for that clarification... May it awaken the sleepers in the Ministry of Education.

Email: [email protected]

By Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli

Former Minister of Oil