Government Hospitals In Kuwait

Just a suggestion. If anyone ever has to visit a government hospital in Kuwait, especially for conducting special tests i.e. MRI, Bone Scan etc – ALWAYS make sure that you know someone in that place. Do NOT go there without any contacts. If you don’t have any contacts, try to insist that the doctor suggesting those tests puts up a note on the request form or better yet – comes with you, when you are going to get a date / appointment.

If you have no contacts and can’t find anyone, be-friend some Bangladeshi walking around in the section where you have the work. Trust me, it makes everything a lot easier and it doesn’t usually cost more than 1 KD.

Even if you manage to get an appointment that isn’t after 3 months, the wait for the test is still too long. Even if your test is scheduled for 11:00 a.m, it’s advisable to be there at 7 or 7:30. If you are lucky – they will put you in once everyone is done with their morning tea and gossip session.

A day or two before the actual date of the test, it would be helpful to go there yourself and meet with one of the technicians or doctors who conducts those tests (this is for specific tests, I am not talking about blood tests and all that). This too proves helpful.

In my experience, I had first made calls, and it required a lot of effort and patience in getting the right person on the phone. After that I made a quick visit to the place and met the technician personally and I have to say, he proved to be extremely helpful not only on the day of the test, but also a week after the test when I had gone to collect the reports and was told that the reports weren’t ready yet. I waited for 30 minutes and this technician made sure that I got the reports. 

Whenever you get a report – MAKE SURE that you get a copy of it before handing it over to any of the nurses or doctors (eg. The MRI images will be on the film, but along with that, there will be a one page print out, summarizing the results, get a copy of that one page print out).

You can get a copy from the filing room etc, but a quicker way is walking into one of the Administrative offices and telling the secretary or office boy over there to give you a photocopy. Being a prick helps.

Yes I know it’s a hassle, running around for a photocopy in the hospital, but it’s much less a hassle when compared to the event where the nurse or the doctor ‘misplaces’ your report(s) or hands it over to some other patient.

Yes, they can still print another copy from the lab, but that takes time too (for some reason – everything in a government hospital takes time).

The best alternative to all this is – private hospitals. Sure it will cost a bit, but hey – it’s a hell lot convenient. I always suggest going to the private hospitals for everything. But recently it has been explained to me that sometimes for complicated cases, the private hospitals might not be able to handle all the issues and they themselves will refer you to the government hospitals. Actually that is why I had the misfortune of experiencing the service in a government hospital first hand.

Even in that event, you can always go to the private hospitals or labs to get the tests done quickly.

However (and I say this from experience), you could get the tests done privately and then take those reports to your government hospital, and they just might insist on getting the same tests done again in the government hospital itself. I have no explanation for that. I doubt the guys at the government hospital have any either.