Minister of Public Health: National Day an occasion to celebrate unity, loyalty to homeland, leadership, Qatar's achievements

HE Minister of Public Health Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari stressed that the Qatar National Day, with its lofty contents, promotes the authentic values of our dear compatriots that have been inherited through generations and derived from our religion and glorious history, to celebrate the unity and harmony of all the people of Qatar and their love and loyalty to the dear homeland and the wise leadership.

In a statement to Qatar news agency (QNA), Her Excellency said that these values are the basis of the Qatari personality and the pillar of renaissance, which elevates the human being to achieve sustainable development that takes into account the needs of the generation and future generations.

Her Excellency added that the slogan of this year's National Day 'Our Unity Source of Our Strength' quoted from a speech by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, embodies an aspect of the authentic values, adding that unity and love among the Qatari people and their wise leadership are the sources of strength and the basis for building this dear homeland and its progress on solid foundations.

HE the minister highlighted that what distinguishes our National Day celebrations this year is that it coincides with Qatar's hosting of the largest football sports tournament, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and welcoming the world to the most popular football event, explaining that this would contribute to familiarising the world with Qatar's culture, glorious history, values of tolerance, honouring the guest and openness to other cultures while cherishing Qatari identity and values.

Her Excellency confirmed that the successful and impressive hosting of this international sporting event represents another success story for Qatar and demonstrates the great progress it has achieved in various fields, which has made it a global role model, clarifying that Qatar has been keen to immortalise this occasion in organising the best football World Cup tournament, creating a legacy that benefits globally and investing this event in order to promote health and health security, in addition to the convergence of cultures and the promotion of lofty human values.

On this occasion, HE the Minister of Public Health spoke about the achievements of the health sector in Qatar and said that Qatar has established a strong health system at a high and global level, thanks to the unlimited support of the wise leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, adding that the Ministry of Public Health and its partners are working to improve the health of the Qatari community in accordance with its health strategies aimed at achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030.

HE the minister explained that the health system in Qatar is centred on the importance of all members of society having access to high-quality health care through hospitals equipped with the latest modern medical technologies, the expansion of the opening of primary health care centres throughout the country, the development of services, and an efficient workforce to ensure that all members of society receive advanced care, and achieve the health and well-being of the population, underlining that the number of hospitals in the public sector has increased to 16 hospitals this year compared to 6 hospitals in 2011 when the first national health strategy was launched.

Her Excellency indicated that in November 2022, His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani opened Aisha bint Hamad Al-Attiyah hospital, which is the second largest hospital in Hamad Medical Corporation after Hamad General Hospital in terms of size and capacity, adding that during this year, new facilities were also opened and established at Hamad Medical Corporation, most notably Al Maha Pediatric Specialized Care Center, the permanent intensive care unit, the physiotherapy and orthopaedic unit, a specialised smoking cessation clinic, the Advanced Wound Care Center, as well as the expansion of the area dedicated to assessing the female health status in Hamad Medical Corporation's emergency and accident centre by 60 percent, expanding Speech Therapy Unit for children with the addition of 12 treatment rooms at Qatar Rehabilitation Center.

The number of health centres in the public sector, including centres affiliated with the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) managed by the Qatar Red Crescent in accordance with an agreement with the Ministry of Public Health, increased to 33 centres during the current year, distributed across different regions of the country, compared to 24 centres in 2011.

This year witnessed the opening of a number of health centres, including Al-Mashaf health centre with a capacity of about 35 to 50 thousand references, and Al-Khor health centre was opened in its new location, with a capacity of 50,000 references.

The private health sector witnessed a significant expansion, as the number of its facilities increased during the current year to reach 10 hospitals, 19 day surgery centres, 390 general and specialised health centres, including dental centres, in addition to 31 diagnostic centres, including medical laboratories, diagnostic radiology centres, and dental laboratories.

The number of health workers in the public and private sectors has also increased to 46,371 health workers this year compared to 20,682 health workers in 2011.

HE Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari noted that the development witnessed by the health sector in the country and the concerted efforts of the State and society sectors contributed to the effective and flexible response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the State was able to control the outbreak of COVID-19 among community members by following the best scientifically based policies, including isolation, quarantine and travel policies, in addition to free testing and vaccination, while continuing to provide regular health services in innovative ways to all patients.

HE the minister said that as a result of the adoption of health in all policies as a strategic priority, Qatar is the first country to receive the title of Health City from the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Health City Program supports the health and well-being of the population through the work of all sectors together to enhance public health measures in everyday environments.

In order to develop cooperation and relations between the State and the WHO, the WHO office in Qatar was opened to strengthen the organisation's work with the health authorities in Qatar, and many partners at the national level, such as UN agencies and other relevant authorities.

Her Excellency said that in addition to the great work of the efficient health response to the requirements of hosting the FIFA cup Qatar 2022, the ministry has been keen to create a sustainable legacy of health and sports that benefits locally and globally, reviewing the most important achievements in this regard, including the signing of a 3-year partnership agreement between the Ministry of Public Health, the World Health Organization, FIFA and the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in October 2021, in order to improve the availability of healthcare and promote healthy lifestyles throughout the country during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which resulted in a range of activities including strengthening health security, health communication and health promotion in relation to physical activity, healthy nutrition, mental health, and tobacco control.

In addition to the services available at regular healthcare facilities and locations, health services are provided to fans through more than 100 clinics in stadiums, fan areas and accommodations, 110 ambulances, and 212 mobile medical units, while 2,275 employees work in providing health services at the World Cup sites, while 4 hospitals affiliated to Hamad Medical Corporation have been allocated for urgent non-emergency patients, namely Aisha hospital bint Hamad Al Attiyah, Al Wakra Hospital, Hamad General Hospital, Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital, in addition to launching the World Cup website to provide participants and fans with health information and enable easy access to medical services.

HE the Minister of Public Health spoke about the strategic outlook of the health sector, where she explained that despite the efforts to address covid-19 since the beginning of 2020, the healthcare system in Qatar has continued the process of development, improvement and progress in achieving its strategic goals, and it is expected by the end of this year to achieve more than 90 percent of the outputs of the National Health Strategy 2018-2022, where the strategy includes 54 projects and 16 national goals that are being worked to achieve, through which greater emphasis is being placed on prevention, wellness, improving access to care and providing services in a more consistent manner and integrated.

Her Excellency said that one of the great achievements that the ministry is proud to achieve is the integrated health care and the comprehensive cooperative approach adopted to enhance patient care, along with the various aspects of physical, psychological and behavioural health care that have formed the pinnacle of the quality of care provided, comprehensive treatment is also provided and emphasis is placed on the preventive side through the integrated care approach to provide multidisciplinary care while maintaining transparency through information exchange, in addition to improving and developing services for the most needy groups such as people with disabilities, the elderly, children, and mental health, noting that the approach of the National Health Strategy focuses on providing timely care, by the right person in the most appropriate place.

Examples of achievements include a decrease in the prevalence of dental caries among children by 5 percent, an increase in the percentage of exclusive breastfeeding for infants aged 0-5 months by 10 percent, and an increase in the percentage of access to governmental and semi-governmental organisations to the Occupational Health Program in the workplace to 60 percent.

Important achievements in the field of public health this year include the preparation of the Covid-19 vaccine guide for 2022, the seasonal influenza guide for 2022/2023, the Meningitis vaccination guide, the national guidelines for the definition of cases of communicable diseases, the National Action Plan for integrated response and prevention of Monkeypox, the National Outbreak Response Guide, as well as the operational guide for mobile food laboratories, in addition to the preparation of the Air Quality Assessment report in Qatar.

HE Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari revealed the work to prepare the third National Health Strategy, which is part of Qatar's development strategy and aims to achieve the Qatar National Vision (2030), in which work is being done to promote excellence and for Qatar to be a leader in the health field, in light of world-class health facilities, advanced healthcare system, and the best results in care and innovation.

Her Excellency reviewed the international accreditations and quality of care, where the Ministry of Public Health and health sector institutions received a number of important international accreditations during this year, including the fact that all municipalities of Qatar received the title of Health City from the WHO this year, as the first country in the world all its municipalities receive this title, in addition to the fact that Education City at Qatar Foundation received the title of Health Education City and Qatar University received the title of Health University.

On August 18, 2022, the Ministry of Public Health received international accreditation for public health services at the national level from the American Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), for a period of five years, thus making Qatar the first country in the world to receive this international accreditation after the United States of America. This important accreditation is considered a confirmation that the concepts and principles of public health practices in Qatar are implemented according to the best international standards.

Five HMC facilities and services received the Patient Satisfaction and Service Excellence Award in March 2022, including the Communicable Disease Center, Home Health Care Services, the private nursing service, the Daycare centre, and Enaya Specialized Care Center, which was part of a two-year pilot program to receive the Patient Satisfaction and Service Excellence Award by Planetree international.

The Ministry of Public Health obtained international accreditation for food safety management from the American Accreditation Board (AAB) in the field of inspection of imported and local food and local facilities, according to the "ISO 17020" system. The ministry's central food laboratories had previously received renewed international recognition from the AAB.

These new accreditations complement the high international accreditations that the health sector has received, such as the accreditation of Hamad Medical Corporation's hospital network by the Joint Commission International (JCI), the primary healthcare institution's obtaining Canadian accreditation, according to the diamond level accreditation criteria (issue 4 Qmentum), in addition to the primary healthcare institution receiving the People Centred Care award, and was the first to receive this award at the international level, and the National Accreditation System for Continuing Professional Development at the Ministry of Public Health is recognized as the core equivalent of the accreditation system of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the board Accreditation of continuing medical education in the USA, which confirms the quality of this system.

In the field of research and medical progress, the State has contributed to the publication of a number of research papers on the Covid-19 coronavirus, covering the main areas of vaccine effectiveness, reduced immunity, the effectiveness of Covid-19 tests and public health issues, especially the reluctance to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, in cooperation with health and academic institutions.

Most of these research papers, published in prestigious scientific journals, are available to the public in order to disseminate knowledge, exchange information and expand the scope of scientific research and studies, and these scientific studies contributed to the development of policies to respond to the covid-19 pandemic.

Hamad Medical Corporation also won the grand prize in the field of epidemiological response presented by the Arab Hospitals Federation in March 2022.

The organ transplant programs in Qatar have achieved outstanding success, including three successful lung transplants during the first year of the launch of the lung transplant program, and the country's Organ Donation Center has exceeded 500.000 registered donors, which represents about 25 percent of the adult population in Qatar. It provides kidney, liver and lung transplant surgeries, making Hamad Medical Corporation one of the most comprehensive organ transplant centres in the region.

Among the significant achievements in the medical field at Hamad Medical Corporation is the first start of nuclear therapy for oncology patients, the success of a medical team in performing highly specialised surgery to remove a brain tumour of a patient in a waking state, the success of a surgical team in performing microsurgery to remove a gallbladder cyst tumour by the robot, and the Hamad Medical Corporation's daycare centre was ranked as a centre of excellence for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia with innovative "rhizome" technology.

Thanks to the continuous development of the Heart Hospital for rapid handling of acute cases, the death rate from acute heart attacks in 2021 decreased by 2 percent compared to 2015, which is comparable to the global rates of the best hospitals in the world.

In the field of technological development, e-health services have promoted rapid and effective innovation in the healthcare system, as work has begun on the development of the Qatar health information exchange platform, which will contribute significantly to connecting various electronic systems to the platform, and thus all activities contribute to data collection, enabling analysis according to business requirements to support the decision-making process.

The confident food safety system was also launched, which enhances the efficiency of food safety management in tracking food across the entire food chain, through the accuracy and speed of control, inspection and tracking of food products in the markets, reducing the time of issuance of laboratory results, reducing food-related risks, and contributing to quality assurance and effective application of health requirements.

The Qatar Cancer Information Center was also launched, which is considered the national reference for cancer-related information in Qatar and aims to ensure a comprehensive governance system for cancer information, and communication between all relevant institutions and individuals to provide high-quality, up-to-date and reliable information about cancer.

The centre supports planning and policy-making in the field of cancer, by drawing on reliable and scientific data, promoting knowledge exchange and improving resources through networking and information.

This comes as a complement to many important projects in the field of e-health that have made the health care system connected through electronic systems that ensure the ability of medical teams to access patient records in various facilities of the public health care system, most notably the MyHealth Patient Portal, which enables patients to access their electronic medical files directly via the internet, in addition to the application of Nar'aakom for the services of the primary health care institution, and other important projects such as the electronic system for pharmacy management and drug control, and the participation of the ministry, represented by the administration of the Medical Commission (MC) in the project of fingerprinting, vital data and conducting medical examination for expats in their countries.

In the unified call centre for the health sector, services of the unified call centre (16000) for the health sector in Qatar have been expanded. Among the services added to the centre during the current year are providing information and guidance to the masses visiting the State about the health care services available to them during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the Medical Committee services, food safety management services, inquiries related to Monkeypox disease, in addition to its multiple services that have been continuously developed since its establishment in March 2020, to enable the residents of Qatar to easily access health care services.

On the other hand, life expectancy in Qatar has witnessed an increase, as improving and raising the level of public health among individuals, through an integrated and comprehensive system that provides effective and sustainable solutions to current and future challenges to public health, in cooperation between all health sectors, has a positive impact on the rise in the average human life in Qatar.