The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) is hosting a health awareness campaign in four local malls during Ramadan, in accordance with the principles established in the National Primary Health Care Strategy 2013-2018.
The ‘Awareness Campaign for Ramadan’ aims to achieve community participation and advise citizens on the importance of a healthy lifestyle.
With this goal, a team of medical staff, including a doctor and nurses, were at Villaggio Mall this weekend, and will also be at Al Khor Mall, Centre Point Mall and Wathnan Mall from 8-11pm this month.
During the campaign, a physician will be available to answer queries, while nurses will measure blood pressure and glucose level in diabetic patients.
In addition, the PHCC staff will hand out brochures and gift bags.
This campaign aims at realising one of the key principles of Qatar’s National Primary Health Strategy, which is to involve the communities within which people live their day-to-day lives, such as schools, religious organisations or businesses.
The PHCC understands how the communities influence health and it works in partnership with them to promote health.
One of the main targets is to address one of the important health issue facing Qatari community: chronic non-communicable disease (NCDs).
The prevalence of NCDs here is high and this situation could worsen in future years because of the unhealthy lifestyles being adopted by many of the people living in Qatar.
In this context, another key improvement aim established in the five-year plan is that the focus of primary health care should be increasingly on helping people live healthy lives and preventing disease, for example through weight management or by encouraging healthy eating.