Medical Commission to set up new units in expansion drive

Dr al-Shaar … need to ease pressure on Medical Commission

By Noimot OlayiwolaThe Medical Commission (MC) is to establish new units in the country to ease pressure and facilitate its services of conducting the mandatory medical check-up on newcomers arriving in the country.Medical check-ups are mandatory for all newcomers who want to stay beyond one month in the country.“We are planning to soon have two new units at the Industrial Area and at the Abu Hamour health centre, which will be allowed to do the screening and other Commission services for the labour category. The one in the Industrial area will be affiliated to the Red Crescent in that area,” Medical Commission executive director Dr Ibrahim al-Shaar told Gulf Times yesterday.The official also mentioned that work on the new MC facility in Al Khor was progressing.“Our plan to establish a new MC in Al Khor is still ongoing and this will be under the supervision of Qatar Petroleum, which is planning to construct a complex that will accommodate many government establishments including the Ministry of Interior,” the official said, adding that the project is scheduled to take off by year-end. The Al Khor unit is expected to process around 500-600 cases per day.However, the sole existing facility in Abu Hamour carry out 1,800 tests each day in different categories of applicants such as those on family visits, maids, drivers, food handlers, beauticians and labourers.On a typical day, the facility is bustling with activities with many applicants, especially labourers, queuing up to be checked for contagious diseases.To further confirm that the only such current facility is bursting at the seams, several long queues of huge number of male applicants were seen yesterday standing under the scorching sun outside the Commission building and from a make-shift tent behind the building.“We have been experiencing unexpected system failure because of some technical problems with some of our computers for about two weeks and we are trying our best to contain the situation,” Dr al-Shaar explained.Getting families, maids or drivers tested happen in a matter of hours, with results being ready within two days. However, labourers have to wait for up to one month before getting a check-up slot simply because they are arriving in huge number.The official mentioned that presently, three health centres in Wakrah, Al Khor and Shamal are also conducting medical check-up for house help, drivers and those on family visit. Each centre conducts up to 50 cases per day, he said.However, Dr al-Shaar stated there are no plans to allow more PHCs to conduct MC testing as it is not part of their function.“Seeing many people queuing up in PHCs to check whether they have TB or HIV could be an eyesore for families seeking medical treatment there. So, we are not considering more health centres for these reasons,” he stated.The Commission has recently granted permission to three major private hospitals - Al Ahli , Doha Clinic and Al Emadi Hospital - to carry out its services for certain categories of workers and their family members.“Although, we have granted the private sector the chance to conduct tests on our behalf, we are yet to feel the impact as the project is still in its early stage and the only thing that is clear is we are referring applicants in need of fast track or high level of service to any of those three designated hospitals,” Dr al-Shaar explained.However, he admitted that the hospitals’ involvement will ease the pressure on the existing facility saying: “Though, we have allowed them to do up to 100 tests daily, we do not bar them from doing more if they are able to and with time, I hope we would be able to feel their impact.”As to why the hospitals are allowed to charge different fees for the same tests, Dr al-Shaar said: “We had an agreement at the beginning of the project regarding a unified fee but we later realized that it will not work, so that is why we are asking the hospitals to fix their charges to give room for flexibility and competition, then it is now up to the customers to decide to use any of the hospitals.”The official mentioned that more clinics from the private sector could be allowed to conduct the tests in the future if the present pilot study in those three hospitals is successful.