“Now, you have to wait for at least three days,” an expatriate, who has been availing of the facility without any delays for the past three years, told Gulf Times yesterday.
The biggest advantage of renewing health card through the e-government portal was that one could collect the new card after 24 hours from the Health Card Office, provided the application was made on a working day and the next day was also a working day.
If the application was made on a holiday, the card would be ready after one working day. Further, if the subscriber opted for delivery through the post, at extra charge, the health card would be received within three or four days.
On the contrary, if the renewal were done through the Primary Health Centre concerned or the specific counters at Hamad General Hospital, it would take at least one month to get the new card.
“As I had renewed the health cards of my family members and myself through e-government on a Saturday, I went to the Health Card Office on Monday, but the lady at the counter took my receipts and asked me to come back after three days,” the aggrieved user said.
When queried about the unprecedented delay, the lady replied that “they were busy with lot of things”. When the applicant went again on the fourth day, he received the cards.
It is learnt that the increasing numbers of health card applications have affected the efficiency of the system.
“If very few residents used e-government to renew health cards initially, now more and more people are relying on it, increasing the load on HMC’s department concerned,” a source said.
The staff in charge are trying their best to cope with the rush, another source added while expressing hopes that the efficiency of the system would be regained shortly.
Quelle/Source: Gulf Times, 14.07.2007
