The Ministry of Health is the ministry responsible for the public health of citizens and residents of the State of Kuwait and for drawing up the health policy plan in Kuwait. It was established in 1936, and is now headed by Dr. Ahmad Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi.
The health care system in the State of Kuwait began as a modern regulatory law in 1944, when Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah issued a law that included fourteen articles that included the organizational matters of the Health Department of the Health Council in addition to the powers of the administrative director of the department and the powers of the technical director (chief physician) of health during that period. In 1939, the first governmental health clinic was opened in Kuwait and later became for men and another clinic for women was built, while in 1944 it was the first private clinic for women.
In 1944, Dr. Hikmat Al-Khaja was assigned by the department to take charge of the health of school students, public health in the markets, and examination of food handlers and sellers. In 1947, Dr. Riyad Mukhtar Faraj, director of the Health of Knowledge, who developed plans to educate and treat students, and set up a clinic in each school. This was the nucleus and launch of the first school health in Kuwait, where the School Health Department was established in 1951.[1] [2]
Governmental health services began in Kuwait coinciding with the establishment of the municipality department in 1930, which took upon itself the health of citizens and residents until the formation of the Public Health Department in 1936, and during that period witnessed the formation of many departments, at which time the Basic Law of the Kuwaiti Legislative Council was issued in 1938 And within the second article that stipulates the health law (which is intended to enact a health law that protects the country and its people from the dangers of epidemics of any kind), the department, like other government departments at that period, had an elected or appointed council (consisting of twelve members) that helped the workflow of the administration It discusses its general policy and assists its head and director in the department's affairs. The Public Health Department was headed at that time by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah from (1936-1952).
The construction of the first hospital in the State of Kuwait was affiliated with the American mission in 1912, and it was the first building of iron and cement to be erected in Kuwait, when Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah asked at that time to open a hospital for Kuwaitis and develop medicine, and the mission at that time had a good reputation in Basra and sent a medical committee composed of John Van S and Arthur Bennett to negotiate with Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah about a suitable location for the hospital. As a result of these negotiations, the mission acquired a plot of land that was the nucleus of its medical center in Kuwait. They share the work within a year due to the lack of medical staff at the time, they are Dr. Bennett, Harrison and Millary and they set up a three-room temporary clinic until the hospital finishes building in 1911.
Upon the completion of the construction of the hospital, the dispensary was closed and moved to the hospital, which is a single floor containing an operating room in the middle and six rooms on the sides of the building. The hospital was built to serve both men and women, but soon the missionary doctors realized the nature of Kuwaiti customs and traditions, so they separated women's medical work from men's.
The work of gynecological medicine began in Kuwait with the arrival of the doctor Eleanor Calverley and Khatun Halima on the first of January 1912 and she established her work in the center of the city after allocating her a home for the treatment of women, and she succeeded in performing operations and gynecological treatment of difficult labor and others, and she would go to the patient if the patient's family requested it, which earned her fame and acceptance among Kuwaiti women.
In 1914, Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah ordered the expansion of the hospital due to the change in the concept of modern medicine and the acceptance of the Kuwaitis from the treatment provided and the successful operations. The hospital became a reputable one in the Arabian Peninsula and became a destination for treatment, where treatment was carried out outside the Arabian Peninsula, the Deputy Governor of India and the British accredited (Connell Cree) who donated a thousand rupees to build two additional rooms in addition to the doctors visiting the neighboring areas to treat princes and kings at their request from the ruler of Kuwait.
In 1919, the number of medical visits for women increased, so the first women’s hospital in Kuwait was built next to the missionary hospital, where the average building was of one floor, and contained two wings, an operating room and a nurse’s residence, where the first nurse who went to the nurses’ house was Rahmouni.
In 1927, he opened the first private pharmacy in Kuwait under the name Islamic Charitable Pharmacy, where the idea goes back to Abdul Latif bin Ibrahim Al-Duhaim,as it was selling drugs and medicines imported from abroad, as it relied on importing medicines from India, Basra and Baghdad.[3]
In recent years, the Ministry of Health has made many achievements, the most important of which are:
The ministry aims to achieve an ambitious strategy for the year 2035, which includes programs to expand hospital beds, accredit Kuwait as a regional center for disease control and prevention, the national program for the accreditation of health services, and reduce the proportion of salt in bread by 20 percent. Health by combating infectious diseases of nuns, training national medical staff, and benefiting from the unified electronic file initiative across 107 primary health centers, 32 specialized hospitals, six general hospitals, and 60 central directorates and offices. Its vision is in line with the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at a historic United Nations summit.
The Ministry of Health is working on a project to develop an artificial intelligence-based system that helps them in their work. The goal is to use artificial intelligence to provide medical assistance and support to patients, doctors and nurses. This project is still in the development stage, and this system will focus on three main areas: medical assistance and medical education and medical research.[4]
Through its strategic plan, the Ministry sought to push for the adoption of Kuwait as a regional center for the prevention and response to chronic diseases Especially after the adoption by the World Health Organization, represented by its regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean, for the strategy of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health to reduce and respond Chronic non-communicable diseases in preparation for declaring Kuwait a regional center.[9]
| Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah | 1936 | 1952 | |
| Fahad Al-Salem Al-Sabah | 1952 | 1959 | |
| Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah | 1959 | 1961 | |
| Abdul Aziz Hamad Al-Saqer | 1962 | 1963 | |
| Abdul Latif Thunayan Al-Ghanim | 1963 | 1965 | |
| Hamoud Yousef Al-Nisf | 1964 | 1965 | |
| Abdulaziz Ibrahim Al-Fulaij | 1965 | 1971 | |
| Dr. Abdul Razzaq Mishary Al-Adwani | 1971 | 1975 | |
| Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Awadi | 1975 | 1988 | |
| Dr. Abdul-Razzaq Yusuf Al-Abd Al-Razzaq | 1988 | 1990 | |
| Dr. Abdulwahab Suleiman Al-Fawzan | 1990 | 1994 | |
| Dr. Abdul Rahman Saleh Al Muhailan | 1994 | 1995 | |
| Saud Al-Nasir Al-Sabah | 1996 | 1996 | |
| Anwar Abdullah Al-Nouri | 1996 | 1997 | |
| Dr. Adel Al-Sabeeh | 1997 | 1999 | |
| Dr. Muhammad Ahmad Al-Jarallah | 1999 | 2005 | |
| Ahmed Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah | 2005 | 2005 | |
| Ahmed Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Dr. Masooma Saleh Al Mubarak | March 2007 | August 2007 | |
| Abdullah Saud Al-Muhailbi | August 2007 | October 2007 | |
| Abdullah Al-Taweel | 2007 | 2008 | |
| Ali Al-Barrak | 2008 | 2009 | |
| Roudhan Al-Roudhan | 2009 | 2009 | |
| Dr. Helal Musaed Al-Sayer | 2009 | 2011 | |
| Dr. Muhammad Barak Al-Haifi | 2012 | 2013 | |
| Muhammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah | 2013 | 2014 | |
| Dr. Ali Saad Al-Obaidi | 2014 | 2016 | |
| Dr. Jamal Al-Harbi | 2016 | 2017 | |
| Dr. Basil Hammoud Al-Sabah | 2017 | 2021 | |
| Dr. Khaled Al-Saeed | 2021 | 2022 | |
| Dr. Ahmed Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi | 2022 | until now |