A stethoscope, Ministry of Health infant formula and 'folk remedy' capsules: the Indian housewife running a clinic for expatriates without valid residency in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, Kuwait

Kuwait's Ministry of Health licenses doctors and clinics, and government hospitals treat residents with valid papers. The system leaves out a large group: expatriate workers whose residency or work permits have lapsed and who cannot register at a public hospital. In that gap unlicensed clinics appear, and in May 2025 police in Farwaniya governorate closed one run by a woman with no medical training at all.

According to Arab Times, reporting on 31 May 2025, detectives of the Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh Investigations Section of the Farwaniya Investigations Department arrested an Indian woman, whose registered occupation was housewife, at an unlicensed clinic in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh. She was arrested while examining a child. The Ministry of Interior announced the arrest in a press statement, describing it as part of its efforts to protect public health. Gulf News, reporting the following day, said she admitted she had no qualifications or official licences.

Both outlets listed what officers found: quantities of various medications, a blood-pressure monitor and a stethoscope, infant formula intended for distribution by the Ministry of Health, and capsules of folk remedies that she prepared and dispensed without medical supervision or government approval. She told police that she had imported some of the medicines and bought the rest from local pharmacies. A security source quoted by both outlets said she mainly treated expatriates living in Kuwait in violation of residency and labour laws, who could not go to government hospitals, and that she charged them small fees. Arab Times said she was referred to the concerned authorities for legal action; Gulf News, citing the Ministry of Interior, said she was referred to the public prosecution.

The mechanism was need rather than deception. Her patients knew they were not in a hospital; they came because they could not go to one. A stethoscope, a blood-pressure cuff and a supply of medicines, including infant formula that was meant to reach families through the Ministry of Health, made the room credible enough. The check that failed was not a register lookup, which her patients could not act on anyway, but the supply chain: the pharmacies that sold her medicines and whoever passed on the ministry's infant formula.

For students and workers from South Asia in the Gulf, the lesson is uncomfortable but important. An unlicensed clinic is most dangerous to those with the fewest options, and a 'doctor' from your own community is not safer for speaking your language. Keep your residency valid so that you can use the licensed system, ask your embassy or Kuwait's Ministry of Health whether a clinic is licensed before you pay, and never take injections or capsules whose source nobody will name. A flat in Jleeb with a stethoscope on the table is not a clinic.