KUWAIT: This file photo shows the Jaber Hospital under construction.

KUWAIT: Motivated by its role in keeping up with the population growth and urban expansion around Kuwait, the Ministry of Health (MOH) is currently in the process of executing a number of mega projects to build public hospitals and health care centers in order to finish them according to schedule.

In this regard, the 2009-2010 MOH budget allocated KD 1.25 billion to build 'medical towers' in various areas around Kuwait within the state's development plan as well as MOH's program to develop health services, reduce medical appointments' waiting time and end patients sufferings while waiting to receive proper treatment. The projects include the Jaber Hospital, the new Amiri Hospital Tower, developing Al-Sabah, Farwaniya, Adan, and the infectious diseases hospitals as well as the Kuwait Cancer Control Center (KCCC). The projects also include the Ibn Sina hospital development project, which is about to be offered for public bidding, and the Jahra hospital development project that is being handled by the Amiri Diwan.

Informed sources added that minister Dr Ali Al-Obaidi was personally following up with the projects to make sure they would finish on schedule. The sources added that according to plans, there would be 125 polyclinics in Kuwait by 2018. The sources also noted that once finished, the Jaber Hospital would include 1,168 beds, adding that the total cost for building the Amiri Hospital Tower was KD 11 million.

Meanwhile, high-ranking sources at the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council of Planning and Development said that a proposal concerning the privatization of public hospitals' administrations according to the public-private-partnership (PPP) principles had been discussed, adding that further meetings with MOH officials would be held in this regard. -- Al-Qabas, Al-Anbaa