Prof Muhammed Saleh Al Musfir
The press is an effective tool of communication between the people and the government, to the extent that access to the decision-maker in state institutions is not an easy task for all classes of society.
The press was and remains the effective way to communicate between the ruler and the ruled. It is indisputable that there are other means of communication in our daily lives, especially live radio programmes that address citizens’ concerns, where sometimes the response is aired quickly. However, most of the answers are instrumental and ineffective.
What prompted me to write to the Ministers of Education and Health is the scene inside the “General Medical Commission” centre that is not a pleasant sight even for the auditors of that institution.
Huge crowds of labourers from everywhere make up the long queues at the centre. At the same time, this sight misrepresents the status of the State of Qatar that earned international acclaim for its treatment of foreign labour despite unfair campaigns by some foreign entities, unfortunately, after prodding by some Arab countries.
The crowds include university professors who came from several Arab and other nations and who are not familiar with medical commission centres in their countries.
Senior corporate managers and school students rub shoulders with general labourers including municipal cleaners, public service workers, domestic servants and infrastructure workers. There is no doubt that equality is justice except in this case, where discrimination is a cultural and
moral duty. It is a well-known fact that visitors to the Medical Commission Centre are foreigners who come to work in various fields and stay in the country for some time.
Here, I suggest that the two ministries allocate a medical mobile vehicle and team to travel between schools to conduct medical examinations
for students.
The time and date of these vehicles going to schools has to be agreed upon between the Health and Education Ministries by giving advance information on the number of students in each school who are required to undergo a medical examination, which is usually required for admission to university, receiving scholarships or admission to a public education institution.
Therefore, medical vehicles will visit schools, which will relieve traffic congestion and save the time of students who now have to travel with their parents from the school to the Medical Centre and back.
The Ministry should assign specific days to “white collar” employees for medical examination so that their work schedule is not disrupted by long waits in serpentine queues.
This way we would achieve justice and equality by taking into consideration the status of each visitor to this medical institution that requires all expatriates in the country to visit it at least once.
Finally, I wish that competent authorities could find an easy way to facilitate the task of the “General Medical Commission” while retaining the social prestige of each visitor without prejudice and also contribute to reducing traffic congestion in the streets.
