As Qatar is fast completing various mega development projects in different sectors and materializing Qatar National Vision 2030, country’s healthcare system too is advancing at full pace and healthcare facilities, strategies of Qatar can be compared with those the best in the world.
In recent years, Qatar has established many new healthcare facilities and upgraded the older ones. At the same time, Qatar is successfully implementing its National Health Strategy 2018-2022. The five-year strategy reflects that the development of a nation’s health system not only sustains well-being and treats ill health, but is also a critical investment in its communities and future.
Taking the strategy forward to accomplish the national vision in health sector, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) through the Academic Health System (AHS) is all set to begin the region’s largest diabetes research project, the Qatar Diabetes Prevention Programme (QDPP).
The five-year programme is funded by Qatar Foundation’s Qatar National Research Fund and co-funded by HMC.
“Diabetes is one of the most pressing health conditions in Qatar. It is estimated that at least 17 percent of the adult Qatari population have diabetes and this number is expected to rise unless wide scale steps are taken to change behaviour and address the risk factors associated with diabetes,” said Professor Abdul-Badi Abou-Samra, Director of the Qatar Metabolic Institute (QMI), Chairman of Internal Medicine at HMC, and Director of the QDPP.
The flagship research programme is the result of a multi-institutional research collaboration between healthcare, education, and research organisations. The research programme aims to identify the best methods to predict, prevent, and reverse type 2 diabetes.
Meanwhile, Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) newest hospital, Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital (HMGH) has also completed the first phase of its surgical services implementation programme.
Two operating theatres for elective general surgery and urology procedures are now open, and upwards of 15 surgeries are expected to be performed each week as part of the initial phase of the implementation of the new service.
This development also indicates Qatar’s priority towards national healthcare system. According to another report, Hamad Medical Corporation’s Al Wakrah Hospital, the country’s second busiest hospital has planned to increase its bed capacity by 10 percent in 2020 to meet the growing demand.
The hospital will also have a dedicated facility for children in need of long-term care next year as well as a cath lab for patients with cardiac problems as part of the ongoing expansion plan, said Dr Sabah Alkadhi, Medical Director of Al Wakrah Hospital.
Al Wakrah Hospital provides comprehensive, high quality healthcare to people of all ages, from emergency care to general medicine and surgery and highly specialized treatments and mainly cater for people in the southern part of the country.
