By Salman Siddiqui
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By providing suitable food to workers who suffer from diseases like diabetes, heart ailments and dyslipidemia, employers can co-operate with clinics in the treatment of their staff, a senior government doctor has suggested.
Companies need to co-operate more with doctors to help them treat their workers suffering from chronic illnesses by putting them on special diets instead of making their condition worse by giving them the same food they provide to their other healthy workers, he said.
Dr Mohamed al-Abyad, who is responsible for the QRC’s Workers Health Centre in the Industrial Area, said that on an average around 1,000 workers were treated at the centre daily.
“A major issue is that most companies provide the same food to workers and this may not be good for some who are under treatment…We need the companies to also help their workers out, we can’t do everything…We have to be all co-operative.”
In general, the doctor said that respiratory diseases were common among the expatriate workers who contract them either in their labour camps or because of the nature of their work.
“We have many chronic cases like diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia - it is very common and increasingly we are seeing more and more numbers, even in young workers.”
The doctor also said that they were observing heart diseases among the workers, particularly among those who come from India and Nepal. “Daily we see young people complaining of heart-related problems. Most such patients tend to be from India and Nepal. It’s really surprising at times to see such cases.”
Dr al-Abyad said that he made sure that all the workers who visited the centre were treated with humane concern and given the utmost care.
He narrated an incident when one elderly patient cried when he touched him during his examination process. “ I was a little embarrassed to see him crying. He told me that he had been in Qatar for eight years and no one ever wanted to touch him while examining his condition “.
The doctor said that he personally made sure that the workers were given quality treatment at the centre despite many difficulties such as the language barrier.
When asked whether there was a “lean season” where he and his staff got to see fewer patients, he laughed and said that the only change was in the nature of cases which changed with the season. “For example, in summers we observe more heat strokes…We never have a lean season but we wish we had.”
One of the head nurses at the centre told Gulf Times that they treated around 40 patients daily for infectious diseases, the most common being chicken pox and skin diseases such as hypohidrosis.
The staff said they followed the directives of the Supreme Council of Health and were always on the lookout for the deadly Corona Virus, which has claimed scores of lives in the neighbouring Saudi Arabia.