A popular medical clinic in Doha has been temporarily closed after staff said it was inspected by the Supreme Council of Health (SCH).
Future Medical Center abruptly shut yesterday morning, and it is unclear when it will reopen.
Security guards stationed in the courtyard outside the clinic, which is located across the street from Villaggio Mall, were seen turning away a steady stream of patients yesterday and today who had arrived for appointments or walk-in services and had not been notified of the closure.
Signs posted outside the clinics gates said the health center was “closed for maintenance.”
The remaining on-site staff refused to say why the clinic was closed, although one said it related to defective machinery.
Through a window, a cleaner could be seen scrubbing furniture in a hallway while wearing a surgical mask.
When pressed, a clinic employee told Doha News it was a “special” cleaning above and beyond normal maintenance, but refused to elaborate.
Officials at the Doha HealthCare Group, which owns the clinic, declined to discuss why it was closed when contacted by Doha News, referring questions to the SCH.
A council spokesperson said he was looking into the matter.
The adjacent dental clinic is not affected by the closure and is still accepting patients.
Patient reaction
Many of the residents who pulled up at Future Medical Center over the past few days appeared frustrated and surprised at the clinic’s closure.
Some had appointments and said they were not informed that the clinic would be closed.
Others who turned up for walk-in sessions were directed to different clinics further up Al Waab Street, including one man who arrived with the intention of having an MRI performed on his back.
He told Doha News that he’d wait to learn the reasons behind the closure before becoming concerned and said he had previously been pleased with the treatment he received at the Future Medical Center.
“I’m surprised (it’s been shut down),” he said. “It’s a good clinic. I bring my son here.”
Thoughts?
Must have been a Tang outbreak………………………..
Now wait for the comments of the Tang fanclub…
Rumor started by the vimto lobby to drum up sales of vimto
Anthrax
This is a new income generation method of the government. Municipality is closely watching villas,Traffic department is making money with hidden cameras. Public health department is making money from super-hyper markets , groceries and hotels. From NISSAN, Toyota, Jeep they made minimum 200000. and similarly they are making from Quality hyper….So we can expect surprises till the OIL price is become stable.
HAHA, your funny
MARS ATTACKS……Sorry I mean MERS!!
Back to the norm, I see, with local ‘PR recovery’ efforts:
“Officials at the Doha HealthCare Group declined to discuss why it was closed …., referring questions to the SCH.
An SCH spokesperson said he was looking into the matter.’
[But you’ve already looked in to the matter! That’s why you closed the clinic!! Stop your mulling, will ya???]
More kudos than ever then, to yer man from Quality Hyper who came on to DN last week and made lots of comments / explanations and offered profuse apologies for his organisation’s shortcomings.
Ahh I’m a patient here, it does give me the geebies, why can’t people say what it is for? I have appointment next week, what will I catch? Secrets are worse than the truth.
As the manager of a similar practice in Doha I can assure you that it’s very unlikely Future medical was closed down due to some contagious outbreak. It’s an outpatient clinic not a pack of operation theaters in Angola.
Like someone else mentioned it’s probably insurance issues and patient complaints. Ever since SEHA was implemented everybody’s share of Qatari patients increased, and they’re more likely to complain when you run them through the consultation in 5 minutes like some alleged.
when will somebody from supreme education council do a spot visit to school, particularly the Philippine School Doha.
ah ow
im sorry , but i just think its awkward clinics look like villas, also places here need extreme professional quality control with a proven verified track record, not a bunch of fakes and phonies.
It’s by law that private medical practices are forced to rent out villas, to stimulate the local rent market. As a consequence I -the manager of a similar medical poly clinic- have to pay 55k riyals per month for a 40 year old 4-bedroom villa, that would go for less than 10k otherwise.
The only other option would be to buy a piece of land and build a new building from scratch, according to SCH’s and a bunch of other ministries’ regulations. Something that most practices avoid.
This place was nothing but an insurance fraud mill. Pretty incompetent healthcare but boy did they run a mad do people through it.
Is Future Medical Centre open now ?