Qatar Report
Building heathcare for the 21st century
Qatar’s leading healthcare provider, Hamad Medical Corporation says it is
committed to realising the
government’s vision of making Qatar an internationally recognised healthcare
destination. The corporation
has come a long way in the past 30 years since it was established by Emiri
decree in 1979. The organisation
has evolved into one of the leading public healthcare providers in the region
and is currently the principal
provider of acute care services to the population in Qatar. Middle East Health
reports.
Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) long
term plans are based on the healthcare goals
set out in Qatar’s National Vision for 2030.
Qatar aims to be an advanced nation by
2030, capable of sustaining its development
and providing a high standard of living for its
entire people and HMC’s efforts are focused
on contributing to the implementation of
this vision.
The Supreme Council of Health is the
highest health authority in Qatar and is
responsible for setting the government
health agenda and policies and regulating
the development of this sector. Established
in April 2009, it is the government body that
oversees the strategic development and operation
of HMC as part of the country’s
national healthcare planning.
As the largest public health service
provider in Qatar, HMC has a strong and
important relationship with the Council.
The Council has a keen interest in HMC's
development and capacities in
contributing to the improvement of the
health of Qatar’s population, while
HMC ensures that its healthcare contributions
are consistent with the Council’s national
objectives.
The government’s health service outlays
are approximately 4% of GDP, which
demonstrates a significant investment in the
country’s health sector. The bulk of health
spending is for the provision of a full range of health services, from primary
to tertiary
healthcare service for residents in Qatar.
Qatar is investing 2.8% of its annual GDP
on medical and clinical research alone in
support of a strong commitment to invest
in the health and wellbeing of its future
citizens.
Demographic challenges
As Qatar continues to grow and develop at
an exceptional rate, this rapid change brings
its own set of challenges that HMC continually
works to address. Qatar’s current population
is approximately 1.7 million – of which
about 300,000 are Qataris and the rest are
made up of an expatriate workforce force.
The Qatari population, which is growing at a
significant rate, is relatively young with a
large percentage made up of children and
adolescents.
This brings with it its own set of challenges
and HMC needs to ensure that targeted services,
such as paediatric facilities, are developed
in keeping with the rate of growth in families
residing in Qatar. Apart from the pre-natal and
ante-natal medical care, HMC also needs to
plan for the various healthcare requirements
needed to look after children as they grow up –
from vaccination programmes to general health awareness campaigns and the
treatment
of specific illnesses.
Qatar’s expatriate workforce includes some
professionals and many general labourers
who work mainly in the construction and
cleaning industry. Whilst most of the former
may have health insurance cover through
their professional engagements, many of the
latter rely on Qatar’s public healthcare sector
to provide for their medical needs.
Some of the key concerns seen in the
Middle East, though these trends are
reflected throughout more developed and
economically advanced countries, are the
rate of increase in obesity and related health
problems. HMC has been working closely
with other partners in the industry to raise
awareness about the health implications and
to encourage a healthier lifestyle especially
amongst the young.
One of the key challenges for any healthcare
provider is having the benefit of reliable
data in order to make informed and effective
decisions on where to invest resources in
order to maximise the benefit to citizens.
Throughout the Middle East, developing
adequate statistics has been a challenge
because of a lack of recorded data. However, HMC has been working on improving the data
it records. The Corporation is also in the
process of moving to digital patient records
which will improve efficiency in many areas
and enable the Corporation to better focus on
the health issues that matter to Qatar. HMC is also developing best practice
clinical responses for the management and
treatment of key health issues.
Corporate profile
Since its establishment, HMC has rapidly
developed medical facilities capable of
providing state-of-the-art diagnosis and
treatment of diseases that previously could
only be managed in overseas medical institutions.
HMC currently provides more than
90% of all hospital services throughout Qatar
and employs approximately 16,000 staff.
HMC’s health services are provided
through five main hospital facilities, some
with specialist services, in the State of Qatar.
Four hospitals, including Hamad General
Hospital, Women’s Hospital, Rumailah
Hospital and Al-Amal Oncology Hospital,
are located in Doha, close to Hamad Medical
City. Al-Khor Hospital is located in Al Khor
city, 60 km’s north of Doha.
Rumailah Hospital was the first hospital in
the HMC group, originally established in
1957 as a general hospital. The hospital
became part of the group at HMC’s formation
in 1979.
It now provides a mix of rehabilitation and
acute care with services for:
● Adult rehabilitation
● Paediatric rehabilitation
● Burns and Plastic surgery
● Dental
● Specialist surgery ● Specialist medicine
● Psychiatry ● Geriatrics
Hamad General Hospital (HGH), established
in 1982, is the largest hospital within
the Corporation and provides a comprehensive
range of specialist acute care. It is a
teaching hospital and prides itself on
providing numerous internship and residency
programmes, working closely with
educational institutions. Its activities
include:
● Trauma
● Emergency care
● Paediatrics
● Critical care
● Specialist surgery
● Specialist medicine
● General surgery
● General medicine
● Laboratory medicine
● Radiology
The Women’s Hospital, established in
1988, is a specialised women’s hospital and
covers:
● Obstetrics
● Gynaecology
● Neo-natal care
● Emergency Care
● Newborn screening
Al Amal Hospital, established in 2004, is a
dedicated oncology hospital and offers the
services of:
● Clinical oncology (radiotherapy) ● Medical oncology
● Day case chemotherapy
● Specialist laboratory services
● Pain management and Palliative care
The hospital enables cancer patients to
remain independent and many of the services
offered are through day care services.
Surgical oncology is provided at Hamad
General Hospital through an integrated care
package and multi-disciplinary teams.
Al Khor Hospital, established in 2004, is a
district general hospital that caters to families
who live in Al Khor and need more
accessible medical care. It covers:
● General medicine
● General surgery
● Emergency medicine
● Paediatrics
● Obstetrics
Also under the corporate umbrella are additional medical facilities – such as the
Emergency Medical Service (EMS), Home
Healthcare Service and the recently opened Fahad Bin Jassim Kidney Center.
HMC manages the EMS which is responsible
for handling all ‘999’ emergency cases
resulting from illness or injury. A fleet of
ambulances, rapid response vehicles and the
Lifeflight helicopter staffed with trained
personnel provide vital assistance to all
patients in need regardless of which hospital
they end up in. In addition, EMS transports
non-emergency patients to, from and
between healthcare facilities.
HMC’s Home Healthcare Service offers
post-acute medical support throughout
Qatar. Home care allows patients to remain
within the comfort of their own homes and
communities, offering an alternative to daily
hospital attendance. Home care gives a superior
service to patients and their caregivers,
while also assisting in relieving overcrowding
in hospitals and reducing costs.
Donated by Qtel – Qatar’s telecoms corporation
– and managed by HMC, the new
Kidney Center was formally opened in
March this year and has been designed to
offer some of the most advanced treatment
standards in the region. The centre provides
treatment facilities for people suffering from
acute and chronic kidney diseases, such as
renal failure, requiring regular haemodialysis
treatment.
Hamad Medical City
Hamad Medical City was built as a response
to the forecast population growth and the
associated growth of healthcare needs. It
consists of a new Children’s Hospital, a new
Women’s Hospital, a Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation Hospital and a Skilled
Nursing Facility.
Hamad Medical City is an integrated
medical complex developed on 450,000 sq.m
of land and consisting of four hospitals,
medical staff and nurses’ residential buildings, an interim skilled nursing
facility for
patients with long-term disabilities, therapeutic
facilities and the Supreme Council of
Health office buildings.
Many of the staff accommodation and
office buildings were built in 2006 to house
the athletes who came to Doha to compete
in the Asian Games that year. It is fitting
that these buildings that have been built
with government funds are now used effectively
and efficiently by the country’s primary
healthcare provider to carry out its duty.
In addition, a new Heart Hospital in Hamad Medical City and a new community
hospital based in Al Wakrah City (South of
Doha) are in development.
Health & Healthcare Standards
The provision of high quality healthcare is
the first of three key pillars of HMC. It is
important to review existing and anticipate
the changes in healthcare needs of patients
to prepare for future demands; this includes
not only the level of medical care but also
the auxiliary care they receive. The level of
service, accommodation, dining, and many
other hospitality related elements are
immensely important to the overall patient
experience and instrumental to their wellbeing.
These considerations have featured
more prominently in HMC’s efforts to raise
and maintain its standards of care and have
been instrumental in shaping the
continuum of care provided by clinicians
and allied healthcare professionals.
In order to gauge the level of the healthcare
provided, HMC sought to be measured
by international standards and set benchmarks
to evaluate improvement over time.
The Corporation’s commitment has been
recognised by international accreditation
bodies such as the Joint Commission
International (JCI) and the World Health
Organisation (WHO).
As part of the efforts to achieve international
recognition, HMC was able to attain
JCI accreditation for all five hospitals, the
first organisation in the region to have
managed this feat. In addition, the Home
Healthcare Service was successfully accredited,
making this the first accredited homecare
programme in the Middle East.
Partnering with international experts has
been instrumental in helping to establish
high standards of operation. For instance the
five-year partnership with Canada-based SickKids Hospital, signed earlier this year, is
key to the preparations for HMC’s new
Children’s Hospital in Hamad Medical City.
This will be a new facility providing a stateof-
the-art paediatric care that is expected to
be operational in the next couple of years.
HMC also has partnerships with Heidelberg
University Medical Center (for oncology,
newborn metabolic screening and specialist
medical training); Partners Healthcare, Boston
(for organisational governance and decentralisation);
University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center (for emergency services) and Asia
Australia Mental Health (for psychiatric and
mental health).
Education
Education is a key pillar upon which HMC’s
development is based. It is reflected by a strong
tradition of organising local, regional, pan-
Arab and international conferences, symposiums
and lectures – more than 50 have been
organised over the last few years. This is in
addition to numerous community and professional
educational activities, many of which
have been organised in coordination with
local and international partners, such as Weill
Cornell Medical College in Qatar, College of
North Atlantic-Qatar and Qatar University.
Education is recognised as the foundation
of Qatar’s future development and HMC
aspires to offer internationally recognised
medical education and fellowship training programmes for Qatari and
international
students. HMC doctors, nurses and allied
health professionals are dedicated to
ensuring the residents of Qatar receive the
very best healthcare and this was the catalyst
for the creation of the annual Qatar
Health Congress and Exhibition. Qatar
Health 2009 was the largest, most influential
medical congress and exhibition ever
held in Qatar.
HMC has a vested interest in forming
close links with the education sector. Weill-
Cornell Medical College-Qatar and HMC
are affiliated and share teaching, research
and training responsibilities in medical
education. The College of the North
Atlantic-Qatar provides training for future
HMC employees in allied health disciplines. Calgary University-Qatar provides
graduate
nurse training programmes.
HMC conducts ongoing programmes of
workshops and lectures on a wide range of
topics and specialities in all health disciplines.
In addition, there are many local and international
conferences which provide opportunities
for presentations and workshops.
There is also a robust programme of
sponsoring specialist training overseas as
well as attendances at international conferences.
The Nursing Division has a comprehensive
training programme to ensure
maintenance and development of skills and
competencies.
HMC participates in national and international
awareness days and campaigns – such
as diabetes, smoking, heart and kidney
conditions as well as World Health Day –
and other associated campaigns such as road
safety. HMC also links with key national
organisations such as the diabetes and cancer
societies; and staff often participate in school
education initiatives on key health topics.
Research
Research is the third important pillar of HMC – allowing the organisation to
contribute to finding new medical breakthroughs
that benefit Qatar locally, but also
a global population. In collaboration with
partners, HMC has developed and
enhanced leading regional training centres,
such as in robotics surgery with Qatar
Science and Technology Park (QSTP), in
order to push the boundaries of medical
science. The generous provision of government
research funds has been greatly appreciated
by HMC doctors and research scientists
as they forge ahead to analyse diseases
and find new cures.
Established in 1998, HMC’s Medical
Research Center has grown in importance
and has initiated several research projects.
With Qatar investing 2.8% of GDP in
research, HMC is now in a better position
to support both internal and external
research projects.
Prominent research currently under way
are gene and type 2 diabetes studies amongst
the Qatari population; a stroke awareness
study on the level of awareness of stroke risk
factors and symptoms in the GCC countries;
and various paediatric clinical trials.
A New Image for a New Era
HMC is in the process of rolling out a new
brand identity throughout the organisation,
which is a considerable task given the size of
the organisation. The intention is to
achieve, at the end of this project, a comprehensive
change management effect. HMC is
not only looking for an external ‘facelift’
with a new logo, but a more monumental
behavioural shift – this includes the way in
which HMC staff deliver the service of care
but also how the general public perceives the
value of care provided by HMC.
The overriding intention for re-branding HMC was to recognise the organisation’s
evolution that has taken place over the past
three decades. This deserved the creation of
a unique and contemporary corporate identity
that is recognisable and supports HMC’s
values. The new image underlines HMC’s
effort to provide a new future in healthcare
delivery for Qatar’s citizens.
The three leaves of HMC’s logo represent
the core disciplines of Health, Education and
Research. Positioning the leaves together in
this way promotes a unified and caring image of the professional quality medical
care
HMC provides.
Individual logos were given to each of the
hospitals under HMC’s corporate umbrella.
The new branding is colour-themed, and each
colour symbolises the type of health care given
within the hospital and is designed to provide
a more patient-friendly face.
HMC’s strategic mission remains to be a
world-class healthcare provider that offers an
affordable, accessible and sustainable healthcare
service to its current and future residents.
The organisation collaborates with
other local healthcare organisations to both
reduce duplication of effort and maximise
the benefits of extensive experience. In order
to realise improvements in the healthcare
sector HMC needed to realise improvements
within the organisation. In 2005 HMC
committed to a strategy of decentralisation,
which is being rolled out throughout the
organisation and focuses on increasingly
devolving responsibilities and accountabilities
to individual hospitals whilst maintaining
an overarching corporate management
framework.
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Robotic
Surgery Centre - a regional training site Qatar Robotic Surgery Centre (QRSC) is poised to become a focal point for international expertise in robotic surgery. The Centre focuses on two core activities: (1) training in robotic and minimally invasive surgery and (2) development and demonstration of innovative surgical technologies. The concept of QRSC is unique in the world, as it places emphasis on advanced simulation training and cross-fertilisation between its training and technology development activities. Qatar Robotic Surgery Centre is an initiative of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned that aims to develop Qatar into a hub for robotic surgery. The Centre is managed by Qatar Science & Technology Park and partners with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Imperial College London and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. QRSC performed its first training in April this year with a series of robotic cardiac workshops attended by surgeons from across the GCC. The Centre was expected to start technology development before the summer. A decade after its introduction, there are 1,500 surgical robots in use worldwide. In the United States 60% of prostatectomy cases are performed using the technology. There are established applications in urology, cardiothoracic and general surgery and new applications are continually being developed, ensuring robotic surgery will almost certainly play a dominating role in minimally invasive surgery practice of the future. The surgical robot is essentially a masterslave system, which leaves the surgeon in full control of the surgery, but allows him to benefit from an advanced 3D view and enhanced precision. The combination of the surgeon and the robot creates, in a sense, a ‘super-surgeon’. The patient benefits from smaller surgical incisions, less pain, less risk and faster recovery. Training QRSC offers training courses in all aspects of robotic surgery, as well as limited programmes in minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery. The robotic training programmes – for surgeons, OR teams, nurses, technical support staff, hospital management and researchers – will cover different levels of experience and expertise, from basic skills to highly specialised master courses. The Centre uses a mix of different educational methodologies, including advanced simulation. The trainee, for example, practices with a real surgical robot on a silicone model of a beating heart or on a mixed tissue model. Later in the year, the Centre will also start using an animal lab, in collaboration with HMC. Although the Qatar Robotic Surgery Centre is not directly involved in treating patients, it reaps the benefits of the surgical expertise of its partner, Hamad Medical Corporation. HMC is the leading healthcare provider in Qatar and started a robotic surgery programme at the end of 2008. Sidra Medical and Research Center, another landmark healthcare initiative in Qatar, currently under development, will offer robotic surgery to patients when it becomes operational. With its technology development activities, QRSC aims to build bridges between medical science and engineering. The Centre is plans to conduct research with local and international partners. The Qatar Robotic Surgery Centre is part of Qatar vision to develop a technology-based economy and to play a leading role in the region in healthcare. |
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Science
and Technology Park set up to accelerate research Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) was established to accelerate applied research and technology development. It was inaugurated just over a year ago by His Highness the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation. In his inaugural speech on 16 March 2009, the Emir emphasised the contribution of QSTP towards the Qatar National Vision for 2030, being “a tributary for human development, and incubator for creativity and innovation, a haven for scientific research, a magnet for national and international expertise, and a space where cultures and ethnicities interact”. An integral part of Qatar Foundation, QSTP is a forum for interaction between academia and industry, enabling companies to benefit from cutting-edge advances at universities, and giving researchers and students access to commercial expertise and corporate employment. The creation of public-private synergies is crucial to drive economic transition from dependence on energy resources and trade to deployment of intellectual capital and knowledge. Thus QSTP encourages companies and institutes to undertake research and technology development (R&TD) by (i) providing suitable premises in a free zone innovation cluster, (ii) establishing strategic alliances with universities and government entities and (iii) offering grants and funding to projects that address national needs in collaboration with local institutes. QSTP currently hosts 30 tenant companies, seven of which are joint-ventures with local institutions, and five conducting R&TD in health science, while most others operate in the areas of energy, environment or ICT. Companies working on medical technology are supported and steered by QSTP and include the Qatar Robotic Surgery Centre, GE Healthcare, Virgin Health Bank, deltaDOT and Qatar University Wireless Innovations Centre. Qatar Robotic Surgery Centre operates in collaboration with Imperial College London, to educate and train surgeons, nurses and technicians, from the Middle East, on multiple applications of computer-assisted surgery. GE Healthcare is developing advanced digital mammography technology, which will enable breast cancer screening with improved accuracy and significantly fewer false-diagnoses. Virgin Health Bank had its headquarters relocated to Doha to collect and store regionally, umbilical cord stem cells at birth, for future use in therapies of diseases such as leukemia and thalassemia, and to enable future research in regenerative medicine. deltaDOT brings molecular separation and proteomics to provide a platform technology used across multiple biomedical and chemical disciplines including disease diagnosis, drug development and petrochemistry. Qatar University Wireless Innovations Centre has numerous projects in the ICT, some of which have medical applications like remote seizure detection in epilepsy patients and tele-monitoring of heart conditions for athletes, labourers and patients, for research or decision purposes. QSTP is particularly involved in the latter technology, which was developed with the help of several local partners including Aspetar Sports Medicine Hospital and Q-Tel. Investment in healthcare Investment in healthcare is a key priority for the State of Qatar, with an allocated budget exceeding US$3 billion for 2009- 2010. As well as significantly increasing the number of hospital beds and expanding associated facilities for diagnosis and treatment, the State of Qatar intends to implement a pioneering ehealth programme across its hospitals and clinics nationwide. Dr Tidu Maini, Executive Chairman of QSTP, said: “QSTP aims to host leading medical research that would contribute to the national strategy for knowledge economy.” QSTP focuses on investing in developing technologies that will address the highest priority diseases in the region, notably diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, renal failure, cancer and respiratory disease. The technology park simultaneously endeavours to involve local academics and industry experts wherever possible, and we has a plethora of reputed institutions including Hamad Medical Corporation, Aspetar Sports Medicine Hospital, Weil-Cornell Medical College, Qatar Univesrsity College of Pharmacy, Sidra Medical Research Centre and Shafallah Genetics Research Centre. “I see one of my missions at QSTP as creating inter-institutional partnerships between the aforementioned stakeholders and foreign companies or universities that approach us for support or creation of an entity at our innovation cluster. We face somewhat different challenges in building the infrastructure and human capital for the medical sector than we do for energy, environment or ICT. Medical research and development is a relative newcomer to the region, and the critical mass of researchers, technicians and laboratories is to be achieved collectively with our neighboring countries if we wish to witness rapid growth in capacity and output. QSTP has nevertheless built an impressive platform to nurture medical research locally and we are seeing the results faster than expected, thanks to strong support and commitment from our partners at Qatar Foundation and the Government of Qatar,” said Dr Maini. |
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WCMC-Q
research takes aim at diabetes and related disorders
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Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar
(WCMC-Q) is creating a research
centre that will focus on causes and
treatments for diabetes, obesity and
metabolic syndrome, which are major
health challenges in Qatar and the Gulf
Region.
Date
of upload: 20th June 2010
