Health minister highlights Qatar's resilience during Covid-19

The Minister of Public Health HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari highlighted Qatar’s efforts as well as the measures adopted by the country in overcoming the challenges posed by Covid-19, at the opening day of World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) 2022. “When the health systems are overwhelmed, the whole world suffers as we have seen during the pandemic. Therefore investing in health systems and building the resilience is not a cost but an assurance,” stressed the minister during a panel discussion at the opening ceremony.According to Dr al-Kuwari, the pandemic was not just a challenge but also an opportunity to test the resilience of the healthcare system and be better positioned and prepared for any pandemic in future.She remarked that Qatar has dealt with Covid-19 pandemic with flexibility and excellently executed its plans, managed to build an information system that is capable of overcoming the emergency cases, provided the essential quarantine spaces and medical families, in addition to building the capacities of the medical practitioners to ensure their physical and psychological integrity.She explained: “Qatar did remarkably well to meet the challenges of the pandemic as our economy remained active, children attended school through online resources and despite high number of transmission of the virus, we had one of the least mortality rates in the world itself.” The minister said that Qatar has several lessons to share with the world. She explained: “We had focused on infrastructure by building a number of healthcare facilities that contributed to our resilience. This helped to face the pandemic and the associated challenges by creating the capacity needed to face the pandemic. We also focused to work together and a resilient health system can’t win without collaboration.” “Everyone in Qatar had equal access to vaccination and other healthcare needs irrespective of social or economic background. Our strong primary healthcare system contributed greatly to the success of the vaccination distribution,” she highlighted.The health minister noted that the training and development of the workforce in the country meant that they were equipped to meet the challenges and helped in overcoming the pandemic effectively. “In Qatar we had benefitted from preparing public health emergencies and national emergencies and that plan has really paid off. The role of healthcare workers was very much instrumental in overcoming the challenges,” added, Dr al-Kuwari.