Qatar to launch 3rd National Health Strategy this year

Qatar will launch the third National Health Strategy later this year, announced HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, Saturday while highlighting the transformation in healthcare in the country over the last decade.
“As we close our 2nd National Health Strategy (2018-2024) which delivered positive changes to our patients, we look forward to launching our 3rd National Health Strategy later this year which will elaborate on the health targets set by the Third Qatar National Development Strategy (2024-2030) towards realising the Qatar National Vision 2030,” stated Dr al-Kuwari.
The health minister was delivering the opening remarks at the 10th Middle East Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare taking place at Qatar National Convention Centre.
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, witnessed the opening ceremony of the forum, which is the largest of its kind in the region.
As the forum marks its 10th anniversary, Dr al-Kuwari said that during the past 10 years of the Middle East Forum, Qatar’s healthcare system has undergone a remarkable transformation journey.
She said : “Today we celebrate a decade of an inspiring, innovative and transformative collaboration between Hamad Medical Corporation and the Institute for Health Care Improvement (Boston) that has transcended borders and systems and that has connected thousands of healthcare leaders and practitioners from across the world with the singular aim of improving quality and safety for our patients and our healthcare workers.”
“When most countries are used to steady growth, we have witnessed a phenomenal expansion in the health sector to match our population’s need and our country’s ambitions and plans. Our public and private sector beds have nearly doubled, and we have seen the addition of Sidra Medicine in 2016 and the Military Medical City Hospital in 2024. Our Primary Health Care Corporation opened 13 new state-of-the-art health and wellness centres, significantly improving primary care provision in the community,” explained the minister.
“Today we celebrate our commitment to excellence and our wonderful journey which has led Qatar being recognised as a global benchmark for excellence and innovation. But more importantly today we re-affirm our unwavering ambition to deliver the best care possible for every patient, every time,” continued, Dr al-Kuwari.
The minister highlighted that in 2023, Qatar had five hospitals rank among the top 250 academic medical centres in the world with two achieving top 100 ranking highlighting the commitment to combining patient care, medical research, and health education to achieve the best outcomes and experiences for the patients.
Dr al-Kuwari also pointed to the resilience of Qatar’s healthcare combating Covid-19. “During Covid-19 our whole of government approach, the strength and resilience of our health systems and our wonderful healthcare workers ensured that we had one of the lowest fatality rates in the world and had close to zero hospital acquired Covid infections to patients and staff. These efforts have been recognised globally ranking Qatar’s Covid response amongst the best in the world,” she noted.
“During the World Cup 2022, our state-of-the-art health services, our public health initiatives in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and our Healthy Cities accreditation made the Qatar 2022 World Cup one of the most healthy World Cups in history despite being at the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic,” emphasised the minister.
“Our training and improvement programmes now cover the whole sector in Qatar, with more than nine private sector hospitals participating in the improvement training and practical programmes in 2023. We have localised the online courses and are providing these in Arabic to make it accessible to all Arabic countries and are currently establishing training opportunities and partnerships for health providers within the Mena region,” added the minister.