By Ayman Adly
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There is an urgent need to increase the number of beds at all public hospitals in Qatar, most members of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) demanded at its session yesterday.
Shortage of beds in Hamad General Hospital has become a chronic problem, local Arabic daily Arrayah had reported yesterday citing patients.
A Qatari citizen told the daily that he had to stay in the emergency section for two days, after undergoing a surgery, on account of a shortage of beds.
There are many cases of patients having to wait for weeks or months to be operated upon, though their condition required immediate medical attention.
While the number of patients continues to increase, in proportion to the country’s growing population, there are not enough beds in the hospital, according to the daily.
At its session yesterday, the CMC approved recommendations to study the possibility of allowing the private sector to invest more in the health sector.
The outskirts of the country should be given more attention when establishing new health centres, it was stressed.
The CMC’s Services and Utility Committee (SUC) was informed last week by two senior officials of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) that three new hospitals are scheduled to be operative during 2016.
Mohamed Jassim Abdulrahman, director of projects at the Department of Planning and Evaluation; and Awn Jalal al-Sharif, director of Health Care Facilities Planning at SCH; told the SUC that the Communicable Diseases Hospital would be operative in the first quarter of 2016, and the Women’s Hospital and the Rehabilitation Hospital in the third quarter of 2016.
There is also a five-year plan of SCH that includes the expansion of Al Khor Hospital to 500 beds, besides similar plans for Al Wakra Hospital and three other hospitals in areas densely populated with labourers having a capacity of 120 beds each.
These include a large and sophisticated hospital at the Doha Industrial Area, another hospital and health centre with a Medical Commission unit at Mesaieed area, and similar facilities at Ras Laffan.
Other expansion plans include a workers health centre at Abu Nakhla, expected to be accomplished in the third quarter of 2015, a health centre at Zekret Camp and another at Mesaimeer, scheduled to be opened in March 2015. There is also a health centre at Muaither area with 45 check-up chambers to be operational in the third quarter of 2016, besides another health centre at Al Wajbah area.
The ongoing expansion of the surgery department of Hamad Medical Corporation will be completed by the second quarter of 2016. It will have a large number of operation rooms. In addition, there are 13 different Primary Health Care Centres in the construction phase at various areas around the country, some of them will be ready during 2015 and the others in 2016.
There is also a plan to build a psychiatry hospital at Al Wakrah with a capacity of 30 beds and another hospital at Al Shamal with 60-beds. Further, studies are under way to increase the number of workers health centres at the proposed workers’ cities.
SCH also has plans to establish five one-day health centres, where people are to be treated for a day as outpatients. They are coming up at Al Markhiya, Aspetar, Al Rayyan, Abu Hamour and Umm Slal.