The Minister of Health H E Abdulla bin Khalid Al Qahtani, speaking at an event to mark the completion of two years of the National Health Strategy (NHS) 2011-2016. Abdul Basit
By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: Qatar will inject a whopping QR38bn into its healthcare system in the next five years, which is a huge increase from its annual spending of QR1.34bn.
The expenditure will be purely on workforce and services provided for the patients, excluding infrastructure, said Minister of Health H E Abdulla bin Khalid Al Qahtani, speaking at an event held on Monday to mark the completion of two years of the National Health Strategy (NHS) 2011-2016.
The five-year NHS has completed two projects within two years and another 38 projects are under implementation.
However, the number of NHS projects has been increased by nearly 30 percent since its launch and QR38bn will be spent for the health sector in the next five years, explained the Minister.
Reducing the risks of marriages between relatives has been achieved by implementing the mandatory counselling and pre-marital testing, and systemising the healthcare labour force through the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners has been completed.
NHS has 39 projects out of which 38 are under active implementation. More than 11 percent of the strategy outputs have already been achieved, with significant progress made in all remaining areas.
“It has been two years since we started the NHS and the challenge continues to grow daily. It is a great and unexpected challenge, but it is rooted on an established foundation guaranteeing success,” said Al Qahtani.
The NHS has set seven goals to achieve as a ‘Comprehensive world class health system,’ ‘An integrated system of healthcare,’ ‘Preventive healthcare,’ ‘Skilled national work force,’ ‘National health policy,’ and ‘Affective and affordable services.’
Some aims such as the National Committee for Preventive Health was formed to prepare and implement a national strategy, the plan of National Nutrition and Physical Activity Strategy was approved while occupational health emergency preparedness, food safety and environment health are in progress.
An electronic health strategy and the healthcare database strategy are likely to be launched soon to integrate health service in a more effective way.
Also the Supreme Council of Health has sought to develop the first National Healthcare Workforce Strategy, which is at its final stage to identify and develop healthcare providers to meet the growth and needs of the population.
Developments in four key areas of health service as academic health system, primary healthcare, mental health and national health insurance were also briefed at the event.
Needs of patients and the population are at the centre of the Academic Health System and over the next three years, the Academic Health System will improve standards of patient care, help train the next generation of clinical and scientific leaders in Qatar and support research.
Primary Healthcare improvement is related to increasing workforce, skills of doctors and nurses, redesigning the patient pathway between primary and hospital care preventing diseases and providing best treatment.
Qatar Mental Health initiative contributes to the human development pillar of the Qatar National Vision 2030, which recognises that a healthy mind is as important as a healthy body. The Supreme Council of Health is planning to launch a new Mental Health Strategy this year.
The Peninsula
