Qatar. Healthcare System Overview
Qatar is the little country that could. With the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world, the country has ample resources to implement a long-term plan to ensure it remains prosperous well into the future.
However, implementing this plan is not without its challenges. Qatar’s population has more than doubled in the past decade and managing this, along with rapid economic growth, requires a clear vision and careful, steady implementation.
To steer and facilitate this growth and develop an economy that is diversified beyond dependence on oil and gas revenues, the Government initiated the Qatar National Vision 2030 – an ambitious road map for the future of Qatar.
Central to this vision is the health and wellbeing of the population. And thus a key part of this plan – and the focus of this report – is the development of the healthcare system to meet the healthcare needs of the growing, multicultural population.
Like the nation it serves, Qatar’s growing healthcare sector is undergoing rapid change. To develop from a country with just one hospital in the 1970s to a sophisticated, integrated, world-class system serving the nation’s 1.7 million residents and citizens, the Government has set an ambitious agenda for the next decade.
This development is being overseen by the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) which is run under the auspices of the Minister of Health and Secretary General, His Excellency Abdulla bin Khalid Al-Qahtani.
In 2011, the SCH developed and launched the National Health Strategy 2011 to 2016, identifying 35 specific projects as a catalyst for far reaching reform of the country’s healthcare system.
Projects include transformation of cancer services in the country, as well as plans to curb the diabetes and obesity epidemics. This is underpinned by the establishment of an integrated system of healthcare for the country as well as a range of preventative programmes.
“We also aim to ensure that some of the world’s most advanced and highest quality care is available in tertiary medical facilities, which are also expected to be research leaders at the frontiers of science,” Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser said at the launch of the strategy which now forms the foundation of all policies and decisions going forward.
Towards a National Insurance Scheme
Another integral part of the strategy is the introduction of a national insurance scheme. There has been much debate about the introduction of a national health insurance scheme in Qatar.In early 2012 the SCH formally established the 'National Health Insurance Company' that would monitor a muchawaited national health insurance scheme for all that is to be launched in phases by the end of this year.
"Health insurance is a social scheme, so we are going to provide minimum package to cover healthcare costs of everybody including visitors and we will ensure that the premium is also affordable,” Falah Mohammad Hussain Ali, SCH assistant secretary general for policy said in 2011 about the universal scheme.
A pilot scheme is expected to be in place by late 2012 with a roll out in 2013 and 2014 to cover the entire population.
Community care
The main primary healthcare provider in Qatar is the Primary Healthcare Corporation (PHCC), which was established in the 1950s to deliver quality care in the first instance to the population of Qatar.The organization became a corporation in early 2012.
PHCC operates a network of 24 community- based centres across the country dealing with family medical issues and other concerns.
These centres provide various programmes including health awareness; child and mother care; immunization against child diseases; diagnostic and treatment services of common and chronic diseases and medications.
Covering the country
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is the country’s main tertiary care provider, with eight hospitals covering the country as well as a national ambulance service and a home healthcare service.
The eight hospitals include Hamad General Hospital, Women’s Hospital, the Heart Hospital, Rumailah Hospital, National Center for Cancer Care and Research (formerly Al Amal), Al Wakra Hospital and Al Khor Hospital.
The eighth hospital, The Cuban Hospital, was formerly known as Dukhan Hospital and serves the country’s western region. It is unique in the region as it is operated administratively by HMC but staffed by 200 doctors, clinicians and nurses from Cuba. The new facility was opened by the Emir His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al Thani in early 2012.
Infrastructure development
Next year will be significant as HMC has set “master facility plans” to take the corporation into the 21st century.Part of the plan involves delivery and equipping three new hospitals at Medical City as part of a QR1.9bn (US$520 million) deal with the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) and South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company.
The additions to the existing Medical City campus include an all-new Ambulatory and Minimally Invasive Surgery (AMiS) Hospital, Women’s Hospital and Rehabilitation Hospital as well as the Translational Research Centre. The AMiS Hospital will have 14 surgical operating rooms equipped with all the necessary resuscitation requirements, 12 pre-operative care beds, 22 post-anaesthesia care beds, 30 stage two recovery beds, pre-admission testing, phlebotomy, gastrointestinal/endoscopy suite, clinics for podiatry, ENT/audiology, ophthalmology, and urology, in addition to 64 short-stay beds.
The ground floor will house a state-ofthe- art medical imaging suite to provide services to all of Medical City hospitals and programmes. Facilities will include two magnetic resonance imaging machines, two CT scanners, one interventional radiology, two fluoroscopy, four general X-ray and 10 ultrasound rooms. The entire complex will have a built-up area of 216,000sqm and more than 500 beds. The projects handover has been scheduled for December 2013.
Work on replacing the existing Women’s Hospital has been ongoing for some time now with conceptual space planning for the new 11-storey building.
The 190 single inpatient beds hospital will also have 53 neonatal intensive care beds, 60 examination rooms, more than 48 bassinets for newborn babies, four caesarean section and three obstetrics and gynaecology operating theatres, 21 labour and delivery rooms, integrated management services for caesarean and accident emergency operations, triage rooms, ultrasound rooms, treatment rooms and emergency delivery rooms.
The Rehabilitation Hospital has a total capacity of 200 inpatient beds including orthopaedic/trauma, stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and paediatrics. It will also include multi-disciplinary inpatient treatment services such as day rehabilitation, physiotherapy, speech therapy, adaptive living apartment, hydrotherapy and a programme to provide real-life environments that can help patients learn to adapt more easily to environments in the real world.
The Translational Research Institute (TRI) also scheduled for completion in 2013, will provide state-of-the-art core research facilities to facilitate internationally competitive outcomes in translational (bench to bedside) and clinical research.
With a focus on the fields of cancer, trauma, infectious diseases, neuroscience, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and women’s and children’s health, the TRI will provide researchers with ready access to facilities that would otherwise be unavailable in Qatar, leading to the translation of basic biomedical discoveries into new diagnostic bio-markers and therapies. The facility will consolidate all research groups across HMC, and encourage collaboration and innovation in areas including bio-informatics, ethics, molecular imaging, functional genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, clinical imaging, clinical trials and bio-statistics.
Joining the dots
As a key component of the new Academic Health System initiative, the TRI will facilitate the corporation’s development as an internationally recognised and leading health research organisation in the Gulf region. HMC is evolving into a thriving Academic Health System that links health, education and research, powered by the synergies between academic partners including Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.The Academic Health System, while drawing on international experience, is tailored to meet the healthcare needs of Qatar today and in the future. It also seeks to improve health and wellbeing whilst expanding the boundaries of knowledge and ensuring a modern, flexible and sustainable workforce. Partners in the new venture include Qatar University, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, College of the North Atlantic Qatar, Sidra Medical and Research Center, College of the North Atlantic Qatar and the Primary Health Care Corporation.
This is the first Academic Health System in the region. It is a partnership between leading learning and research institutions and healthcare providers. They are recognised internationally as a model for pioneering research and medical discoveries and for making them available to patients. The system will see the partners build joint infrastructures in clinical care, research, education, community engagement, human resources development and information systems.
“They are synonymous around the world with academic excellence and delivery of the highest quality patient care,” Hanan Al Kuwari PhD, HMC Managing Director, said recently.
The future
The year 2013 looks to be an interesting one in healthcare with the new hospitals opening at HMC and the long awaited opening of Sidra Medical and Research Center.Focusing on patient care and research, Sidra will be investing in the health of women and children in Qatar.
Meanwhile, HMC, PHCC and Sidra have signed an agreement with technology provider Cerner to provide integrated health information systems. (Read more about this on Page 42.)
HMC, PHCC and Cerner Corporation will work side by side during the next five years to implement the systems and ensure a seamless transition.
With the opening of the new hospitals, Qatar’s bed capacity will more than double by 2013.
“We want our people to get the best healthcare facilities,” His Excellency Al Qahtani said.
Source: Middle East Health
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