*85% of all people accessing emergency to be seen and managed within four hours from registration
The new National Health Strategy 2018-2022 (NHS 2018-2022) aims to provide better health for the entire population of Qatar, stated HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari, the Minister of Public Health.
NHS 2018-2022 was launched on Saturday at the Qatar National Convention Centre.
“Building upon the impressive progress of the previous health strategy, we have developed a new National Health Strategy for the next five years.
Our ambition for the next stage is to make sure that all the population living in Qatar enjoys better health,” Dr al-Kuwari said at the launch ceremony.
“We will focus our efforts on seven population groups, each of them having specific needs, such as children, individuals with special needs or the elderly. We will tackle five system wide priority areas such as health promotion to further strengthen the way in which the health system operates and help us to meet our ambitious targets,” explained Dr al-Kuwari.
“We have identified 19 concrete key performance indicators that will help us keep focused and measure our progress at the national and international levels. We will improve the efficiency of our emergency service by ensuring that 85% of all people accessing emergency are seen and managed within four hours from registration," continued the minister.
“We will improve management of chronic diseases such as diabetes by decreasing 15 % hospital admissions through improved specialised services at the community level,” she said.
“We will strengthen our efforts to support lifestyle changes in the population and decrease the frequency of unhealthy behaviours such as smoking, that we aspire to reduce by 30% over the next 5 years,” noted Dr al-Kuwari.
"The first National Health Strategy has helped, for instance, to ensure that patients with cancer are being diagnosed earlier and therefore getting the care they need faster — enhancing their chances of recovering and leading a full and active life.
It has also driven the rapid changes in primary care – enabling us to deliver more comprehensive care to families and communities close to where they live,” she maintained.
The minister stated several new healthcare facilities were opened recently enhancing patient care.“The three new hospitals at the Medical City are now treating over 40,000 patients a month.
Sidra Medicine has started to deliver care for inpatients and is on the way to becoming fully operational.
Primary Health Care Corporation has started six new wellness centres and are introducing new and innovative programmes of care,” she pointed out.
“Our new strategy provides a roadmap by which we take the transformation of our health system towards a more comprehensive and integrated approach tackling both the societal and personal determinants of health and the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of our health care system.
The focus is on our population needs and expectations with a clear vision and an up-to-date knowledge of the instruments and tools we have to achieve our goals,” added the minister.
