DOHA: There is a plan to set up a full-fledged paediatric hospital in Qatar that will eventually replace the Paediatric Emergency Center (PEC) in Al Sadd, a senior official has disclosed.
The proposed hospital is expected to address space constraints at the Al Sadd facility by bringing together emergency and inpatient services under one roof, according to Dr Mohammed Hammoud Al Amri, PEC’s deputy director.
He said the crowding was caused mainly by a shortage of beds at hospitals that are supposed to admit long-stay patients. The proposed paediatric hospital will have an emergency unit on the ground floor and an inpatient unit on the upper floor, Al Amri said in an interview with local Arabic daily Al Arab.
He said the expansion and renovation under way at the Al Sadd facility will be completed in July this year. The existing premises will be linked to the new facilities that are expected to become operational by the end of this year.
The expansion will increase the capacity of the emergency unit by 25 to 30 percent.
There will be 13 new beds and four new consulting rooms and two new rooms for preliminary check-up (blood pressure and body temperature).
With this expansion, the total number of beds will increase to 55 and the consulting/diagnosis rooms will become 17.
“When the paediatric hospital is ready, the Al Sadd facility will be cancelled,” said Al Amri.
He said the five PEC units in Qatar received a total of 553,961 visitors last year. Al Sadd PEC had the highest number of visitors at 326,031. The other units are based in Al Rayyan, Airport area, Al Daain and Al Shamal.
He said the main challenge faced by the paediatric centers is a lack of cooperation from some parents.
“They cannot wait even for a while. Our priority is based on the case and not by nationality,” he added.
He said currently waiting time at PEC for most urgent cases is not more than five minutes. Waiting time for other cases vary from 15 minutes to 21 minutes depending on the urgency of the cases.
In rare cases, the waiting can go up two hours, especially when there is a rush and this happens mostly during winter and the evening shifts.
He said the PEC investigates when it receives complaints about medical errors.
Some parents resort to verbal assault against doctors and nurses and there were also few incidents of physical assault, that were referred to the Public Prosecution.
Al Amir said during 2014, the PEC recorded 26 cases of child abuse, found during medical examinations.
“ In such cases, we inform the police immediately even without knowledge about the parents because they need to be investigated. Sometimes we admit them for further treatment,” Said Al Amri.
He said the PEC also received abandoned children found in front of mosques, near garbage bins and other places. There is a special section at the Hamad Medical Corporation to deal with such children.
The Peninsula
