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Kuwait’s health sector is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a massive government development programme aimed at revitalising the local economy and strengthening the country’s social support structure.

The Kuwaiti parliament is currently considering a five-year development plan put forward by the government that would see up to $140bn spent on infrastructure, housing and education. The plan would also further the country’s aims of becoming an international financial and commercial hub.

Though the exact details of the plan’s budget or a full breakdown of projects to be funded under the scheme have yet to be released, one thing has been made clear by officials, that improving the provision of health services will be one of the central planks of the programme.

Through the five-year plan, Kuwait will experience a significant improvement in health services, according to Health Minister Hilal Al Sayer. Along with boosting the service capacities of state hospitals, taking advantage of technical and administrative developments will further raise the standards of the health sector, he said on October 13.

Among the measures was the proposal to build three hospitals to cater for expatiates, Al Sayer said. Located in Jahraa, Farwaniyah and Al Ahmadi, the hospitals are to be equipped to provide full services, easing the pressure on existing facilities.

The minister said hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities will be electronically connected to better facilitate the rapid transfer of information and to manage the distribution of medication through proper channels.

Even without the provisions of the five-year plan, there has been continued growth in Kuwait’s public health sector. By the end of this year, an additional 1000 beds will be added to the current capacity of state hospitals, while six more laboratories had been brought on-line in the past few months. The latter move was mainly prompted by concerns over the spread of the A(H1N1) virus and the need to speed up the process of testing samples from those possibly infected with swine flu.

The government has already announced that it plans to open eight new hospitals between 2014 and 2016, though it is unclear whether the budgets for these projects will become part of the larger development plan.

While the government is committed to expanding the public health sector, it faces a number of difficulties in improving the provision of services. One problem, common to other countries in the region, is retaining existing staff and recruiting new medical professionals, in particular nurses. According to figures from the World Health Organisation, some 98% of all nurses in Kuwait are expatriates, and the ratio of nurses to the population is around one third of that in countries such as Norway or Finland.

In mid-October, the Ministry of Health (MoH) announced it was planning to recruit at least 1500 nurses from India and the Philippines to help fill shortages of qualified and experienced health care support staff.

In order to attract new staff, and to keep those already working within the health service, a new salary scale for nurses had been established, improving wages and conditions, said Dr Qais Al Duwairi, the MoH’s assistant undersecretary for support services affairs.

Another problem the government may face is pushing its proposed development plan through the parliament. While there is no question of any members of parliament opposing the concept of improving health services, debate over the plan as a whole is expected to be a drawn-out process.

In his address to mark the opening of the new parliamentary term on October 27, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah said that improvements in the provision of services in the health sector was one of the main priorities of the country. However, in order to achieve this and other goals, there needed to be “constructive and positive cooperation between the legislature and executive authorities,” the Emir said.

An issue that could spark debate is the proposal of expanding the role of the private sector in the provision of basic services such as health, housing and education, services traditionally provided by the state. While generally supportive of the private sector, Kuwait’s parliament is often wary of any move that could be construed as rolling back the social functions of the state.

With rising oil prices increasing state revenue and Kuwait’s economy expected to record solid growth next year, the funding required by the five-year plan should be readily available. As long as political consensus is achieved, the pulse of the health sector will likely be strengthened by an injection of capital.