Cabinet approves recommendations to boost medical tourism

AMMAN — The Cabinet on Sunday approved the recommendations of a committee to boost medical tourism to the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The committee, headed by the health minister, studied the challenges facing the sector. It aimed to sustain the achievements of the Kingdom in the field of medical tourism and to benefit from the medical expertise and services available in the sector.

The recommendations included improving the investment environment, permitting private hospitals to generate alternative energy to reduce costs and seeking the approval of the Greater Amman Municipality to allow hospitals to expand to more than eight floors.  

The committee also recommended allowing hospitals to hire guest workers in 10 per cent of the nursing positions in certain specialisations.

Medical tourism should be allocated funds for promotion, in line with other tourist sectors, the committee recommended, and a specialised unit should be established at the Jordan Tourism Board. 

Embassies should also promote medical tourism, the committee suggested. 

Other recommendations included the amendment of regulations and laws, including the medical responsibility to protect the rights of patients, doctors and hospitals, as well as intensifying oversight at hospitals and creating a hotline for complaints. 

Also on Sunday, the Cabinet approved a by-law on street vendors, which controls and organises vendors and street stalls within the boundaries of municipalities. 

The by-law bans unlicensed vendors from opening stalls or livestock sheds anywhere that could affect traffic or pedestrian movement.

Meanwhile, the government authorised the Labour Ministry to establish a clothing factory on a five-dunum plot in Khirbet Al Wahadneh in Ajloun, some 76km northwest of Amman. The factory will contribute to limiting poverty and unemployment, Petra reported.

In the fields of water and environment, the Cabinet directed the Water Ministry to continue its plan to solve wastewater problems in Zarqa by connecting all houses to the wastewater network.  

The government also directed the Environment Ministry, in cooperation with the water, public works and planning and international cooperation ministries, to proceed with its project to rehabilitate Zarqa River and to start implementing industrial water sanitisation projects in Zarqa and Sahab Industrial Estate, using the build, operate and transfer system.