Hassan Al-Sitri
The Parliamentary Services Committee approved the proposal with a desire for the government to register doctors under training in the social insurance system, while the Ministry of Health clarified that the inclusion of an employee or worker in government agencies with insurance coverage is conditional on establishing the employment relationship and achieving a functional connection between the employee and the government agency, which is not available in the training agreements concluded with trainee doctors.
Representatives of health authorities reported that there are two types of trainees: The first type are employees in the health sector and in centers and hospitals, and they are entered into training programs, and thus a portion of their salaries is deducted from Social Insurance. As for the second type, they are trainees under contracts and supported by the Labor Fund (Tamkeen) program. Through training, they are given rewards, and thus these trainees can choose the advantage of registering with Social Insurance and benefit from it through the mechanism they deem appropriate.
The Ministry’s Government Hospitals Administration stated that the number of doctors being trained through the Labor Fund (Tamkeen) – who are the segment concerned with the proposal, with a view to perspective – during the years (2022-2024) has reached (172) doctors who are being trained in government hospitals and primary health care centers, and that the number of doctors registered among them in the General Authority for Social Insurance is (7) only. For its part, the General Authority for Social Insurance stated that the matter requires legal regulation specific to the category of trainees in terms of the conditions and conditions of insurance for them. The Bahraini Medical Association affirmed its willing support for the proposal, and stated that there are two categories of trainee doctors: a category in which the doctor is employed and trained (the board), and here the trainee doctor is subject to social insurance by force of law, and the second category is the one in which the problem lies in the lack of insurance, and they are the doctors who are included in the programs of the Labor Fund (Tamkeen) to support wages, and are not employees, and therefore not compulsorily insured. The proposal under consideration addresses the problem of this category specifically.
