The Hindu Business Line : Kuwait to reassess Kerala medical degrees

THE Kuwaiti Government has expressed willingness to have a second look into the issue of whether degrees granted by medical colleges in Kerala would qualify doctors for recruitment to senior positions in the emirate.

An assurance to this effect was given by the visiting Kuwaiti Health Minister, Dr Mohammed Al-Jarallah, while speaking at a function organised by the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) to felicitate him.

Dr Al-Jarallah, a cancer surgeon, said this while responding to the State Health Minister, Mr Kadavoor Sivadasan, who had observed that degrees issued by even nationally accredited medical colleges based in the State were not being honoured by the Kuwaiti Government.

This, according to the Minister, had put a large number of Keralite job aspirants to inconvenience. He requested the Kuwaiti Minister to send a delegation to assess the quality of education here and the expertise available at the medical colleges.

Dr Al-Jarallah promised to send a delegation for reassessing and accrediting the State's medical education infrastructure. He paid glowing tributes to the services of Indian professionals in the kingdom saying they had stood by the Kuwaiti people in times of great stress.

Earlier, Mr Sivadasan had also offered training facilities in Kerala for Kuwaiti students, especially in paramedical courses such as nursing and pharmacy. He also proposed exchange of service and expertise of senior medical faculty members between Kerala and Kuwait.

The Kerala Minister for Information and Non-Resident Keralite Affairs (Norka), Mr M.M. Hassan, said on the occasion that the State Government had started focussing on the need to upgrade the skills of nurses who were in great demand abroad. A world-class training centre for nurses is being set up at Kochi for this purpose, he said.

Welcoming the guests, the Director of RCC, Dr B. Rajan, said the centre had set high standards for the treatment of cancer patients in the State. A State Government enterprise, RCC has now become a model for private hospitals despite being constrained by lack of funds.

The centre posted 25,000 new registrations of cancer patients every year, of which 10,000 received treatment. The centre is equipped to handle all forms of cancer, and housed a separate paediatric oncology wing, he added.

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