Last year, Qatar ranked first in the Arab world and 18th worldwide in the 2022 Health Care Index.
Qatar launched the new Al Sadd Health Centre of the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) on Monday, as part of the Gulf state’s efforts to expand its clinics to better serve patients.
Doha’s Minister of Public Health Dr. Hanan Al Kuwari inaugurated the new health facility, which is the 31st centre affiliated with PHCC, Qatar’s state news agency (QNA) reported.
The new facility has the capacity for 35,000 patients, a figure it expects to register within a year, with the possibility of increasing to 50,000.
Al Sadd centre includes family medicine clinics, pregnancy and postpartum follow-up, healthy child services, periodic immunisations, communicable diseases, physiotherapy, among with other sections.
Dr. Al Kuwari, recently named as the region’s top third healthcare leader by Forbes, said the expansion falls under PHCC’s ambitions to achieve the goal “A Healthy Population: Physically and Mentally” under the Qatar National Vision 2030.
The Qatari health official noted that the expansion also comes under the country’s efforts to lead a healthy lifestyle and prevent diseases.
Dr. Mariam Ali Abdul Malik, Managing Director of PHCC, added that the local health entity is working on maintaining and developing existing facilities to better respond to the high number of patients.
Meanwhile last month, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) announced “system changes” to better serve patients booking appointments across its centres following complaints by patients over months-long delays and a lack of appointments.
The changes entailed the establishment of “new referral management sections in each of HMC hospitals under the control of appointment management teams”.
In February, five Qatar hospitals ranked among the world’s top 250 academic medical centres, the highest number of hospitals from the region with global ranking.
The ranking was part of a new study by leading United Kingdom-based consultancy, Brand Finance.
Four centres under HMC made it onto the list, including Rumailah Hospital, Hamad General Hospital, the National Center for Cancer Care and Research, and the Heart Hospital.
The fifth Doha-based entity that reached the global ranking is Sidra Medicine, which falls under the umbrella of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.
Qatar’s health sector has repeatedly received global praise, particularly during the Covid-19 outbreak.
In 2016, HMC became the first healthcare system in the world to have all its hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI) under the Academic Medical Centre accreditation programme.
Last year, Qatar ranked first in the Arab world and 18th worldwide in the 2022 Health Care Index.
