For the first time since its establishment, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s Neurosurgery Department performed more than 1,000 neurosurgeries in 2021, which is considered a huge leap in surgical activity in this specialty.
The surgeries included 177 brain surgeries to remove tumours, and more than 300 spinal surgeries, as well as other surgical procedures to treat cases with strokes, traumatic brain injuries, cerebrovascular diseases and other neurosurgical conditions, a press statement noted.
Dr Abdulla al-Ansari, chief medical officer and chairman of surgery at Hamad Medical Corporation, said that the HMC continues its development journey with many achievements and milestones reached so far, such as the opening of new facilities and implementing quality improvement plans and programmes.
“Surgical services at the HMC meet the best international standards in terms of patient safety and the surgical technology used by our surgeons,” he said. “The HMC is committed to enhancing the surgical infrastructure in all its departments and specialties, and to providing innovative services and technologies to enhance surgical capacity and capabilities across all its hospitals, as well as to providing the best and most advanced surgical services available to Qatar’s population.”
Dr Sirajeddin Belkhair, senior consultant and head of the Neurosurgery Department at the HMC, said that the Neurosurgery Department’s strategy over the past few years has been focused on achieving a number of objectives, such as improving the quality of neurosurgical care and enhancing the confidence of the local community in the quality of treatment services provided at the HMC.
“The objectives of the Neurosurgery Department include strengthening the neurosurgery training programme to ensure residents and neurosurgeons acquire the highest levels of skills to treat patients who suffer from a variety of conditions and maintain the international accreditation of this training programme, as well as obtaining international accreditation for treatment services provided by the Neurosurgery Department to be recognised as a centre of excellence on the national, regional, and international levels,” he noted.
Dr Belkhair highlighted the department’s success in performing a number of highly complex surgeries for the first time in Qatar over the past months, including more than 10 brain tumour surgeries performed on patients who are awake, four brain surgeries for epilepsy with intra operative electroencephalography brain mapping, and a brain bypass surgery on a patient with Moyamoya Disease as part of the Brain Re-Vascularisation Programme, introduced three years ago.
The HMC is currently the only healthcare provider in the region to offer this surgery, which is a last-resort treatment for patients suffering from Moyamoya disease.
All these surgeries demonstrate the HMC’s excellence in the delivery of surgical services.
“The Neurosurgery Department is staffed with five senior consultants, three consultants, and nine specialists,” Dr Belkhair said. “We have two operating rooms available round the clock to allow our surgeons to perform surgeries 24/7, including surgeries on weekend days for trauma and stroke patients and for cases with hemorrhage due to aneurysms or vascular anomalies.”
“The global reputation that the HMC has gained for its world-class neurosurgical services has led it to become a treatment destination for many patients from across the region,” he added. “We now see patients from neighbouring countries such as Kuwait and Oman travelling to Qatar to undergo brain surgeries.”
“The future vision of the HMC’s Neurosurgery Department is focused on introducing the world’s latest surgical practices and technologies at the HMC, and making them available to patients in Qatar, as well as maintaining and even improving the world-class care services we deliver so that our department becomes a globally recognised centre of excellence in neurosurgery,” Dr Belkhair said. “We also have the ambition of establishing a specialist hospital for neurological disorders in Qatar.”
Dr Abdulla al-Ansari, chief medical officer and chairman of surgery at Hamad Medical Corporation, said that the HMC continues its development journey with many achievements and milestones reached so far, such as the opening of new facilities and implementing quality improvement plans and programmes.
“Surgical services at the HMC meet the best international standards in terms of patient safety and the surgical technology used by our surgeons,” he said. “The HMC is committed to enhancing the surgical infrastructure in all its departments and specialties, and to providing innovative services and technologies to enhance surgical capacity and capabilities across all its hospitals, as well as to providing the best and most advanced surgical services available to Qatar’s population.”
Dr Sirajeddin Belkhair, senior consultant and head of the Neurosurgery Department at the HMC, said that the Neurosurgery Department’s strategy over the past few years has been focused on achieving a number of objectives, such as improving the quality of neurosurgical care and enhancing the confidence of the local community in the quality of treatment services provided at the HMC.
“The objectives of the Neurosurgery Department include strengthening the neurosurgery training programme to ensure residents and neurosurgeons acquire the highest levels of skills to treat patients who suffer from a variety of conditions and maintain the international accreditation of this training programme, as well as obtaining international accreditation for treatment services provided by the Neurosurgery Department to be recognised as a centre of excellence on the national, regional, and international levels,” he noted.
Dr Belkhair highlighted the department’s success in performing a number of highly complex surgeries for the first time in Qatar over the past months, including more than 10 brain tumour surgeries performed on patients who are awake, four brain surgeries for epilepsy with intra operative electroencephalography brain mapping, and a brain bypass surgery on a patient with Moyamoya Disease as part of the Brain Re-Vascularisation Programme, introduced three years ago.
The HMC is currently the only healthcare provider in the region to offer this surgery, which is a last-resort treatment for patients suffering from Moyamoya disease.
All these surgeries demonstrate the HMC’s excellence in the delivery of surgical services.
“The Neurosurgery Department is staffed with five senior consultants, three consultants, and nine specialists,” Dr Belkhair said. “We have two operating rooms available round the clock to allow our surgeons to perform surgeries 24/7, including surgeries on weekend days for trauma and stroke patients and for cases with hemorrhage due to aneurysms or vascular anomalies.”
“The global reputation that the HMC has gained for its world-class neurosurgical services has led it to become a treatment destination for many patients from across the region,” he added. “We now see patients from neighbouring countries such as Kuwait and Oman travelling to Qatar to undergo brain surgeries.”
“The future vision of the HMC’s Neurosurgery Department is focused on introducing the world’s latest surgical practices and technologies at the HMC, and making them available to patients in Qatar, as well as maintaining and even improving the world-class care services we deliver so that our department becomes a globally recognised centre of excellence in neurosurgery,” Dr Belkhair said. “We also have the ambition of establishing a specialist hospital for neurological disorders in Qatar.”
