The Overseas Medical Treatment issue was a controversial subject going around in the agenda of the respective parliaments where discussions from various angles lead nowhere, but it has now ended due to the coronavirus pandemic halting all overseas medical trips, Al-Rai daily reported.
The issues are associated with controversies, interference, and accusations that hint at corruption and wastage of public money, in addition to scandals that have affected a number of Kuwaiti foreign medical offices in a number of countries.
The country was forced to cut off all travel during the pandemic for almost eight months like the rest of the world, in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. During that time, no Kuwaiti patient was sent abroad for treatment over the past more than six months and the health system in Kuwait was able to provide adequate healthcare for citizens.
The annual budget for treatment abroad is estimated at hundreds of millions of dinars. In this regard, some observers say that “the suspension of treatment abroad over the past few months has not put a dent in the ability of the Kuwaiti health system to treat patients at home without sending them abroad for treatment and this raises many logical questions about the country which has been spending hundreds of millions of dinars over the past years on medical services that are available at present in Kuwait treatment facilities.
There are some who say that treatment abroad issue is overtly or implicitly part of the means to win elections by many members of the National Assembly, who the government allegedly rewarded by sending some patients recommended by MPs on medical trips — some of whom were sick despite that the treatment was available in Kuwait and there were others who were not originally ill.’
This issue is important for many candidates and MPs with the approaching parliamentary elections because this is the best time to stir the voters’ emotions with promises of treatment abroad. The observers note that the recent months have proved that all diseases can be treated locally, and that Kuwait is capable of avoiding expensive treatments abroad, and saving hundreds of millions of dinars by developing the health system inside Kuwait, whether by building more hospitals, or using international medical expertise within the country instead of sending patients abroad.
Health sources told the daily the government has saved an estimated KD150 million dinars which would have been spent on treatment abroad since medical travel was suspended following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The money will be directed towards settling the financial claims of previous years concerning several institutions, including the ministries of health, oil and defense.”
The daily, quoting sources, affirmed financial savings and the success of the health system in providing full healthcare to patients who returned from abroad as well as others who required additional treatment constitute an impetus to radically review the policies related to this issue, and create health policies that pave the way for gradually ending the decisions to send patients for treatment abroad.
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