Dr Hanan al-Kuwari cuts the anniversary cake in the presence of senior HMC officials.
The National Centre for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) launched a new initiative for gauging patient engagement and experience during its 10th anniversary celebrations recently.
The programme, “Putting Patients First,” aims to ensure that patients always remain at the centre of healthcare delivery at the hospital.
As part of this initiative, an interactive patient experience app was also launched. This application aims to measure the quality of the patient experience in the hospital in real time enabling quick action from the results.
The anniversary celebration included presentations from Prof the Lord Darzi of Denham; Dr al-Hareth al-Khater, senior consultant and assistant chairman of Haematology and Oncology for NCCCR; Prof Karl Alexander Knuth, medical director of NCCCR and chairman of Cancer Services for HMC, and Lara Waywell, executive director of operations for NCCCR.
Lord Darzi’s team of specialists from Imperial College London worked with HMC to develop the app focusing on the needs of local patients. It will be available on iPads installed in key areas within the hospital and will allow patients to rate the hospital on various services such as the welcome from the staff, the level of staff responsiveness, the quality of healthcare from doctors and nurses, and how well their symptoms were managed during the visit.
Hanan al-Kuwari, managing director of HMC said: “Over the last 10 years, NCCCR has played a pivotal role in transforming cancer care in Qatar and we at Hamad are proud of the achievements that have been made. It is crucial that we understand more about the needs of our patients to provide them the best possible experience.”
She added: “To be truly patient-centred, we need to work in partnership with our patients. With the launch of this new app and the wider patient experience programme, we will gain constructive feedback from our patients, so that we can deliver the safest, most effective and compassionate care.”
David Astley, chief, Tertiary Hospitals Group HMC said: “This hospital is special for many reasons, one of which is that we get to build long-term relationships with all our patients and support them throughout their cancer journey. This is something that is unique to healthcare services that care for patients with long-term conditions, and puts us in a strong position to better engage patients in the delivery of their care.”
He also spoke about the “Putting Patients First” initiative as a framework of values and behaviours among staff to ensure that patients are always their first priority.
