DOHA: To address the crowding at health centres, the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) will introduce a patient triaging system beginning next month.
Under the system, visitors who come without a prior appointment will be seen by a doctor based on an assessment and classification to decide the urgency of their cases.
Triaging will start at the Abu Nakhla Health Centre and will be expanded to other centres later, PHCC said yesterday. The system aims at identifying and giving priority to patients who need emergency care.
Others will be put to wait or given appointments for another time or date.
Dr Hanan Al Majli, Director for north areas at PHCC, said the aim of the classification system was to explore the level of response to urgent cases and avoid keeping them waiting with other patients.
“This will force those who have no emergency to take appointments the same day. It will give them enough time to sit with a doctor instead of wasting time in waiting,” said Al Majli.
She said the new system would also help reduce the crowding at health centres and improve the quality of services.
Giving priority to emergency cases at health centres could also reduce unnecessary visits to the emergency sections of public hospitals. Triaging will be done by a team of trained doctors and nurses.
PHCC has tied up with the US-based Triage First to train medical staff at health centres in classifying patients based on their health condition.
Recently it held a two-week training course for the purpose.
PHCC had signed an agreement with Triage First to train 100 nurses and 20 doctors from selected health centres.
The Peninsula
