His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday directed the government to take immediate action to streamline measures for citizens who are not covered by any health insurance and who seek assistance from the Health Ministry's Department of Patients Affairs.

The King's directives followed an incognito visit to the department last Wednesday to check on the quality of services offered to beneficiaries and would-be beneficiaries. The department helps cover medical fees, mainly for surgeries, of citizens not covered by any health insurance scheme.

Directing the government to improve the quality of services offered to citizens and streamline related measures, King Abdullah also instructed the government to extend the exemption period of medical services granted to non-insured patients with cancer from three months to one year.

Patients who suffer from chronic disease, such as heart diseases, arterial hypertension and diabetes, will also benefit from the one-year exemption period, while the exemption will be extended from three to six months for other patients, upon the King's directives.

King Abdullah also ordered concerned authorities to build a fully integrated facility to handle petitions from this category of patients in the vicinity of the Royal Court.

The new premises are meant to ensure the availability of all facilities and streamlined procedures for patients.

The King also directed the government, the Royal Court and the Jordan Armed Forces to draft a full-fledged strategy on medical exemptions to ensure simplified and streamlined procedures that would alleviate people's suffering when applying for assistance.

During his undercover visit last week, the King listened first hand to citizens' remarks on the current procedures as he mingled and talked to some of them while they were filling in their application forms.