MPs seek better housing, healthcare for citizens
Manama : Lawmakers have demanded better housing and improved healthcare services to citizens in the Kingdom at the House of Representatives’ weekly meeting held yesterday.
Elabourating on government replies to 20 proposals in relation to enhancing housing and healthcare services, the MPs sought more housing units to people with disabilities by allocating five per cent of each housing project to this section of society. They also asked the government to permit citizens to expand the housing units handed over to them by allocating new projects in certain villages and towns.
Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee member Jamal Buhassan underlined the importance of supporting and facilitating government services provided to citizens with disabilities.
“Citizens with disabilities should be given the priority when it comes to providing healthcare and housing services. These services should be provided faster to them, considering their needs. Allocating only five per cent of housing projects to this category of citizens is not sufficient and more efforts should be taken to meet their requirements,” Buhassan said.
Also speaking about the importance of providing more services to citizens with special needs, Southern Governorate’s Fifth Constituency (Riffa) Representative Khalifa Al Ghanim stressed on the need to establish a public rehabilitation hospital, which provides free mental and psychiatric care services, in addition to physiotherapy and orthopedic care.
‘Expand capacity’
While discussing two proposals to urgently improve the absorptive capacity of the two existing health centres in Hamad Town besides revising the working hours, two of the area’s representatives demanded the government to pass the proposals without delay.
“Bahraini women running inside the health centre look like Batman, with their Abaya flying. What are we waiting for to provide better healthcare services in Hamad Town?,” asked Abdulhameed Al Najjar, describing his recent visit to Mohammed Jassim Kanoo Health Centre, located near Roundabout 17 in Hamad Town.
“Citizens stand in long queues before the centre opens. They rush inside the centre the moment the doors are open in the morning to secure an appointment with a doctor,” he said.
“According to the international standards regulating the adequate numbers of patients each health centre should receive, we need at least five centres in Hamad Town to accommodate the increasing numbers of its residents and the areas around it,” he added.
“The number of patients received by both health centres in Hamad Town have exceeded the absorptive capacity set by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” said Mohammed Al Emmadi.
“There are around 140, 000 people living in Hamad Town alone. Both health centres also receive patients from surrounding villages and the University of Bahrain. WHO has announced that each health centre should serve a maximum of 30,000 patients. In Hamad Town, each health centre serves at least 70,000 patients. This is more than double the centres’ absorptive capacity and it negatively affects the quality of healthcare services provided at them,” Al Emmadi stated.
The lawmaker demanded to expand Mohammed Jassim Kanoo Health Centre and to operate it along with Hamad Town Health Centre around the clock. He also called for increasing the numbers of the medical staff at the centres to reduce the appointments’ “prolonged” waiting lists.
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