With more than a third of Kuwait’s adults living with diabetes estimated to be undiagnosed, Global Medical Center’s specialist services sit within a wider question: what happens between the first test and continuing care?
Kuwait’s diabetes challenge extends beyond the people already attending clinics. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that 37.3% of adults aged 20 to 79 living with diabetes in the country were undiagnosed in 2024, leaving a substantial gap between the scale of the condition and the number of people who know they have it.
That finding gives a broader public-health significance to the work of providers such as Global Medical Center. The Kuwait-based group’s published medical profiles include endocrinology and diabetes care, with services covering diagnosis and follow-up rather than testing alone.
With World Diabetes Day approaching on 14 November, the distinction matters. Identifying a condition is one stage of care. Ensuring that a patient understands the diagnosis, receives appropriate treatment and remains under review is a separate, continuing task.
What the national figures show
The IDF’s Kuwait country report estimates that 908,500 adults aged 20 to 79 were living with diabetes in 2024, including approximately 338,900 whose condition had not been diagnosed. Its age-standardised prevalence estimate was 25.6%.
These figures require careful interpretation. They are estimates for a defined adult age group, not a count of confirmed cases across Kuwait’s entire population. The age-standardised percentage adjusts for differences in population age structures, allowing comparisons between countries; it should not be described as the proportion of all Kuwait residents with diabetes.
Even with those distinctions, the undiagnosed share highlights a specific problem for healthcare planning: a substantial part of the diabetes burden exists outside the population already receiving care for a known diagnosis.
The World Health Organization explains why detection can be delayed. Symptoms of type 2 diabetes may be mild and take years to become noticeable, with some people diagnosed only after complications have developed. This makes early identification a clinical issue, rather than simply a matter of how widely the condition is discussed.
The specialist work behind the clinic name
Global Med’s published directory provides a local example of the range of work that falls under diabetes care. Its profile of Dr Waleed Aldahi identifies him as a consultant in endocrinology and diabetes and lists consultations, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes and hormonal disorders.
The same profile includes follow-up for type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as well as diabetes during pregnancy. It places the doctor within the group’s Bneid Al Gar branch. These are distinct clinical responsibilities, involving patients whose needs cannot be reduced to a single general health-check package.
The group also lists Dr Kashif Rizfy as a consultant in internal medicine and diabetes under its Hawali branch. His published biography identifies previous leadership roles at New Mowasat Hospital’s Diabetes and Medical Centre in Kuwait and in endocrinology and diabetes in Kettering, in the United Kingdom.
Those listings establish a specific connection between Global Med and the subject. They describe the group’s stated clinical scope and the experience of named practitioners; they do not, by themselves, measure how many patients are treated or the outcomes of that treatment.
For readers, the relevant distinction is between a centre advertising tests and a provider listing physicians responsible for the diagnosis and continuing management of the conditions those tests may reveal.
Why follow-up extends beyond blood sugar
WHO’s account of diabetes care includes treatment and regular checks for complications. Over time, the condition can affect the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, eyes and nerves. Its consequences therefore extend beyond the result of an individual glucose test.
The organisation’s regional guidance describes a care pathway that combines blood-glucose management with attention to blood pressure and blood lipids, alongside screening for eye, kidney and foot damage. It also identifies access to basic diagnostic tests in primary care and specialist assessment when needed.
That framework helps explain the relationship between general medicine and specialist clinics. Detection may begin in a primary-care setting, while particular clinical problems require further assessment. Continuing care depends on those stages connecting, including a route back to the clinician responsible for ongoing management.
It also explains why different forms of diabetes need to remain distinct in public discussion. Type 1 diabetes requires insulin, while gestational diabetes is identified through prenatal screening. Describing all diabetes care as a response to lifestyle alone would obscure important differences between patients and conditions.
Measuring care after diagnosis
WHO’s HEARTS-D technical guidance provides a practical way to assess diabetes services. Alongside the number of people receiving treatment, it identifies measures of blood-glucose control and the occurrence of complications as indicators of service effectiveness.
That changes the meaning of progress. More diagnoses may reflect improved detection, but the number of tests or consultations cannot establish whether a service is achieving sustained control or reducing complications. Those questions require follow-up information.
The distinction is relevant to both public and private providers in Kuwait. The national diagnosis gap concerns people who have not yet entered care, while measures of control and complications concern what happens after they do. A complete response needs evidence on both.
Global Medical Center’s published specialist profiles place it within that continuing-care landscape. As attention turns towards World Diabetes Day, the substantive question for Kuwait is how many people move from an unrecognised condition into an established treatment pathway, and how their health is monitored once that pathway begins.
