The latest report from the Ministry of Health (MoH) on the health of the nation reveals that the overall daily mortality rate has increased, despite an increase in number of medical facilities and healthcare staff.
The report titled ‘Kuwait Health’, which provides a snapshot of healthcare in the country, shows that on average 10 deaths were reported each day from hospitals in the country, compared to nine deaths reported in 2012. In general, the overall mortality rate in Kuwait increased between 2012 and 2016.
Heart disease, accidents, especially traffic accidents, and cancer were found to be the three leading causes of death in Kuwait. The report also showed that while the mortality rates of males from heart disease and traffic accidents were higher than females, when it came to malignant cancers, women outpaced men, both among Kuwaiti women and women of other nationalities.
Moving on to medical facilities and healthcare personnel, the report showed that there were five public hospitals in Kuwait, one in each of the five health areas. In addition, the large Al-Sabah health area in Shuwaikh included the Sabah Hospital and nine other specialized hospitals. In support of these public hospitals there were also 95 primary healthcare centers and 84 diabetic clinics located all over the country.
The report also revealed that 61,000 people were employed by the MoH, of whom 38.4 percent were male and 61.6 percent were female workers. There were a total of 8,434 doctors working for MoH, of whom 5,189 (61.5%) were expatriate doctors and the remaining were Kuwaitis. Incidentally, 70 percent of all the dentists working in the country — 1,859 dentists — were Kuwaitis. On the other hand, there has been a steady decline in the percentage of Kuwaiti nurses, which fell from 7.5 percent in 2012 to 5.2 percent today.
The largest ratio of healthcare staff (26.6%) were employed in the huge Al-Sabah Health area, and distributed between Al-Sabah Hospital and the other specialized centers and hospitals in the area.