Twenty-three public benefits associations have called on the concerned authorities to treat the nursing staff ‘fair and square’ because nurses at the height of the pandemic have worked hard and faithfully put their life online to protect the citizens and residents.
In a statement, the associations have expressed their strong dissatisfaction about what they called ‘inhuman behavior’, and called for the need to end their suffering. They called on the Minister of Health, Dr. Khaled Al-Saeed to end close this file and hold responsible those who are responsible.
The associations said the expatriate nurses of different nationalities were taken by surprise when the companies that hired them to work in hospitals and healthcare centers terminated their contracts after their contract with the Ministry of Health expired. To add insult to injury to sign a new contract these same companies are asking for huge sums of money in violation of all rules and regulations governing their profession and in clear violation of the Kuwaiti labor law.
The associations confirmed the importance of the health sector increased exponentially with the Corona pandemic that affected the entire world and the role played by the medical staff, especially the nursing staff was crystal clear everywhere including Kuwait that exceeded all expectations, whether they were citizens, residents or bedouin.
The associations explained after raising this issue in the media and social media for several days, the Ministry of Health remains unmoved. The sources added the statement of the Ministry of Health sometimes says that the problem is related to the issue of laws regulating the residence of medical staff whose contract has expired and that this matter is in the hands of other parties, and sometimes it says that “we have hired a large number of them” to work directly in the ministry.
“If this is true indeed that the residence permit of a large number of them has been transferred to the Ministry of Health, then the question is ‘why this issue has snowballed in the first place, and why did the ministry not offer all members of the medical staff this work directly in the ministry and not only some of them as long as the ministry still needs more medical staff’?
The associations said, “As civil society organizations, we feel a great responsibility towards those who will be wronged by the actions of some officials of the Ministry of Health who are indifferent to the interests of the country both the citizens and residents.