Al-Ahli Hospital has developed a technology to limit the infection transmission and stop the spread of Covid-19 by converting all the hospital elevators to infrared elevators, thereby avoiding the need to touch any buttons to provide commands.

“This is the first such system in Qatar as of now,” said Ammar Annatashi, chief operations officer, Al-Ahli Hospital, during a media interaction on Tuesday.

“The whole system, right from concept design and fabrication, was developed by our expert technology team. Our engineering division has been at the forefront of developing the whole plan. We are planning to introduce the same service at our Wakra facility too very soon,” continued Annatashi.

Jehad Rihan, chief facility maintenance engineer of the hospital, was also present during the media briefing.

The elevators work without touching as they receive the signals remotely. A small control panel receives the command and its light turns from blue to green when a guest points his fingers to it while giving the command to call the elevator and move from one floor to another.

Jamal Hammad, deputy CEO and director of projects at Al-Ahli Hospital, said they are keen to ensure a "very high level of quality and achieve global standards for the safety and security of internal guests and visitors".

“That is why we have been keen, since the beginning of the establishment and urban planning of the Al-Ahli Hospital building, to be designed in a way that ensures the prevention of acquired infection in hospitals by introducing the ventilation system, positive air pressure in operating rooms and negative air pressure in isolation rooms to prevent infection transmission to the patient as much as possible,” he explained.

He thanked the whole family of Al-Ahli Hospital for implementing the project, especially the departments of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, which were able, despite the scarcity of resources, to present this initiative in co-ordination with the management and implement it quickly.

He also pointed out that the infection rate at Al-Ahli Hospital has dropped to 1%, and this is much lower than the international level, which is 5% in the best international hospitals.

He added that Al-Ahli Hospital uses ultraviolet filters and other tests that detect the presence of bacteria and viruses, helping t eliminate them and maintain a clean and safe environment.