Friday, February 17, 2012

Kuwait's Ministry of Unhealth

I took my 4 year old to have her regular vaccination shots the other day, as per the Ministry of Health's schedule that was handed to me after her birth. We first drove to the Faiha clinic, as usual for all the previous vaccinations, only to be told that the schedule's changed and now they only do vaccinations on mornings!

WHY??? I don't know.

So I drove to Adailiya's Al Sager Clinic, and asked where to go for children vaccinations, and sure enough, it was there, on the first floor at the Preventative Health department, and I was directed to the first floor, pulled a number and waited patiently.
A short while later, the billboard showed our turn. I walked into the nurse's room, and gave them the booklet. my 3-year old had been coughing for the last few days, and had a mild fever a couple of days ago, so I dutifully informed the nurse of this detail and asked if she could please check her temperature. The nurse replied that I should go back down, to the pediatric section, to have get temperature read, as she did not have any thermostats!

WHY?? I don't know!

Fuming and complaining, I walked down and headed for the nurse's office where the kind nurse got to do her thing, and that's when I forgave the poor idiotic nurse upstairs for wasting my time, because I read this notice that was posted on the billboard;
Official MOH notice mandating added bureaucracy!
An official notice, mandating all health workers to be informed that all temperature readings are to be taken at the Pediatric section, and not the vaccination section of the Clinic. Why, I can't imagine. But I can understand why some people would resort to violence when attending any of the MOH's outlets, thanks to all this bureaucratic hurdles that an average person has to go through. I also think that the official at the MOH know that too, as evident from the 'preventative' notice that they'd posted onto the same billboard;

6 months prison or KD500 fine for anyone assaulting Health workers
All I can say is, thank God we are a country that's rich enough to have a number of private hospitals and clinics. If only they weren't so expensive, though...

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