Women’s Hospital Emergency Department set to relocate

As of 6am Friday, Women’s Hospital will stop admitting patients experiencing obstetrical and gynaecological emergencies. The service will be transferred to the new Emergency Department at the Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) – one of Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) new Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City hospitals.

Inpatient services, including labour and delivery, will also relocate to the WWRC as of 6am Friday. This will be followed by the full relocation of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) next week.Shaikha Mahboub al-Dosari, assistant executive director, Ambulatory Services at Women’s Wellness and Research Center, has been caring for patients at HMC for 40 years. She said she is excited about the move and the enhanced ability the new location will provide to support women and their families. “Since 1988, the Women’s Hospital has been providing emergency services for hundreds of thousands of women in Qatar. I am excited about the transition of our Emergency Department on Friday morning. Our new department at WWRC will be double the size of the Women’s Hospital Emergency Department and will offer much more comfort and convenience for our patients.” According to al-Dosari, the new facility will be equipped with a separate and spacious waiting area for both women and men and will house support services within the same area, including a counter where patients can register and pay for their treatment and dedicated services such as advanced clinical imaging, clinical diagnostics, and a 24-hour in-house pharmacy.She added that the new Emergency Department at WWRC will also see the introduction of a new triage service that will allow staff to treat maternity patients more quickly.Dr Huda Abdulla al-Saleh, executive director, Quality and Safety and head of the Emergency Department at Women’s Wellness and Research Center said: “As of Friday, May 11, the Women’s Wellness and Research Center will be fully operational. The new Emergency Department will provide pregnant women experiencing signs of labour or an obstetric or gynaecology medical emergency with immediate care and the new maternity triage system will allow us to have a dedicated team responsible for rapidly assessing each maternity patient and determining the level of care required.” “The outcome will be a more rapid response to obstetric emergencies and will also help to reduce the volume of patients and waiting times by preventing unnecessary admissions for women who do not require immediate care,” Dr al-Saleh continued. When complete, the transfer of emergency care services, as well as inpatient services and the NICU, will mean that most services provided at Women’s Hospital will now be located at the WWRC. Until otherwise announced, In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and Infertility services will remain in their current location at Women’s Hospital.