Kuwait is ready to charge a fee for medicine from foreigners in Kuwait. The Minister of Health, Dr Ahmed Al Awadi, has instructed the authorities to charge a fee of 10 dinars for government hospitals and 5 dinars for primary health clinics.
Officials said that the decision comes into effect from today. Earlier, primary health clinics and hospitals used to provide free medicines to foreigners. According to the new directive, foreigners will have to pay a fee of 5 dinars to get medicine from a pharmacy in a primary health center and 10 dinars in an outpatient pharmacy in a hospital.
Currently, the consultation fee is 2 dinars in primary health centers and 10 dinars in hospitals. As a result, expatriates will have to pay a fee of seven dinars to visit a primary health clinic and 20 dinars to visit a hospital. The Ministry of Health announced in a press release that the aim of the decision is to prevent the wastage of medicines and improve health services.
Certain areas have been declared exempt from the fee, but it is not specified which ones. The new decision will create a big crisis for tens of thousands of ordinary foreigners including Malayalis.
