*Essential services will be provided on a face-to-face basis at a limited capacity across all health centres : PHCC

 

The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has announced that all non-essential clinic appointments will be conducted through virtual consultations only from now.
This decision came into effect Sunday.
Essential services will continue to be provided on a face-to-face basis at a limited capacity across all health centres (HCs), the PHCC said in a post on social media.
All patients are required to wear a mask, show their Ehteraz app and undergo body temperature checks. "These changes are made for the safety of our patients and visitors," the corporation stressed.
An online document providing updated information on PHCC health services says the corporation is taking preventive measures to
"Should you have an existing appointment, you will be contacted by a member of our team to rearrange this as a virtual consultation"
control the spread of Covid-19 in view of the current developments pertaining to the virus and for the purposes of protecting public health.
Accordingly, the following services will be considered non-essential and all booked face-to-face consultations will be converted to telephone consultations: geriatric memory clinic, physiotherapy, well woman, cancer screening, minor procedures, smoking cessation, adolescent health, SMART clinics, wellness services, dental screening, health educators, family planning, NCD, dermatology, ENT, ophthalmology, optometry, audiology, general paediatric, integrated psychiatry, support clinic, cardiology, dental general, MCH, dietitian and CDC, the document states.
"Should you have an existing appointment, you will be contacted by a member of our team to rearrange this as a virtual consultation," PHCC said.
On the other hand, the following services will be considered essential: family medicine (face to face), dental (face to face), well baby, premarital, ultrasound (obs/gynae) and abdominal, walk-in for dental, walk-in for FMM, urgent care, Medical Commission, homecare services, and all virtual services.
The document also notes that the PHCC has dedicated two of its HCs as test and hold centres as part of the efforts made to contain the spread of Covid-19. The two testing centres are the Rawdat al-Khail and Umm Slal health centres.
Patients with mild or moderate symptoms of coronavirus should dial 16000 and will be directed to one of the screening units at the PHCC's designated Covid-19 health centres where they will be tested and isolated, and will receive the results from healthcare professionals as soon as samples are tested.
The corporation has also made the Covid-19 test available at all of its other health centres for suspect cases.