DOHA: The Psychiatry Department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) claims that it has significantly reduced the waiting time for evaluating and treating patients presenting with mental health issues at Hamad General Hospital’s (HGH) Emergency Department.
The waiting time from the point of referral has been dramatically reduced as a direct result of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Program, contributing significantly to improved patient care.
About 320 patients at the Emergency Department are evaluated for mental health problems every month. “We have been evaluating and making decisions on their treatment within one hour of the request by the medical or surgical team. This way, we have not only reduced the time that patients spend in the Emergency Department, but we have also reduced the waiting list for admissions to the Psychiatry Department by 18 percent,” said Dr Adel Zaraa, Senior Consultant and Chief of Psychiatry at HGH’s Emergency Department, and Director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Program, which is the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa.
“Reducing the waiting time was a major factor in our decision to form the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Program, which is in line with the National Mental Health Strategy,” said.
“The role of a consultation-liaison psychiatrist is to see medical, surgical and emergency patients who may also have co-existing mental health problems, and vice versa. We started the Program in June 2012 and expanded to the Emergency Department in May 2014,” said Dr Zaraa.
Under the Program, Arab Board certified psychiatrists are trained in emergency room psychiatry, where they work with the treating medical or surgical team, and receive additional training abroad. Such a training program for emergency department psychiatrists is rare even in the United States (US), according to Dr Zaraa.
The Consultation-Liaison Service is one of several specialist services offered by HMC’s Psychiatry Department. The Department provides diagnosis, treatment and support across the spectrum of mental illnesses, ranging from the mild to the severe and complex.
The Peninsula
