Health Ministry Collected BD3.99m in Fees From Non-Bahraini Patients Since 2023

The Health Ministry collected more than BD3.98 million in fees from non-Bahraini patients at government hospitals and primary healthcare centres from the start of 2023 to the end of 2025, figures given to Parliament show.

In a reply to a question from MP Mahmoud Fardan, the ministry said it took BD3,518,787 from non-Bahraini patients attending government hospitals between January 2023 and October 2025. A further BD469,201 was collected from non-Bahraini visitors to primary healthcare centres between January 2023 and December 2025, bringing the total to BD3,987,988.

The ministry said more than 343,262 non-Bahraini patients were outside the scope of the fee-exemption decision. It added that 276,234 of them attended clinics and emergency departments at government hospitals from the start of 2023 to October 2025.

Primary healthcare centres recorded 67,028 non-Bahraini visits from the start of 2023 to December 2025, it said

The ministry also reported 47,105 non-Bahraini admissions to government hospitals as inpatients from the start of 2023 to October 2025.

It said exemptions from healthcare service fees totalled 258,765 cases over the past three years, including 45,951 linked to government hospitals and 212,814 linked to primary healthcare centres.

Exemptions are granted under legal provisions or on humanitarian grounds, the ministry said. Categories include a foreign wife of a Bahraini and a foreign husband of a Bahraini woman, on condition of actual residence in the Kingdom, as well as widows and divorcees of Bahraini spouses, under the same residency condition.

It added that exemptions can also cover the children of Bahraini women married to non-Bahrainis, GCC citizens, emergency cases under the approved classification, inmates in reform and rehabilitation centres, people without nationality who were born and live in Bahrain, Bahraini newborns aged one to two months whose passports have not yet been issued, and government employees covered by the Civil Service Law along with their family members, provided they have permanent residence.