By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: Hamad General Hospital (HGH), the largest healthcare provider in the country, has once again come under fire for its allegedly inadequate facilities and inappropriate treatment of patients.
The issue has cropped up following recent comments by a Qatari woman on a popular programme on Qatar Radio about her harrowing experience at HGH. Her remarks have sparked a debate on social media.
Several citizens have called on the authorities to take immediate steps to address a shortage of beds at the hospital and expand its emergency unit.
The woman, mother of three boys who died in a car accident in Al Khor in August, called up Qatar Radio’s popular programme, ‘Watani Al Habeeb Sabah Al Khair” (Good morning, my beloved country) last week to narrate her story.
She said that two of her younger children and a domestic help who survived the accident were discharged from HGH in a rush. One of the children was in need of plastic surgery and the other had to undergo surgery for injuries caused by the accident. Although it is more than a month since the accident, the surgeries are yet to be performed, she said.
She said she too had sustained injuries in the accident and had been treated at the hospital.
“My children have injuries on their shoulder and face, but until now no appointment has been fixed for their surgeries. I was not allowed to stay with them in the hospital. Only the father could stay because the children are boys,” said the mother.
She also alleged that she was discharged from the hospital in a rush two days after the accident although she was still suffering from pain in the head and eyes.
“My vision was blurred and I had pain in the eye. I sought an appointment to see a specialist but haven’t got it until now,” she said.
Such allegations are not new to Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), which runs HGH, and its officials, on most occasions, have rejected the charges as baseless. Time and again HMC has announced major plans to expand facilities at its hospitals to provide better services to the public.
The problems remain unresolved despite such assurances, say citizens and residents, citing their experiences on social networking sites. The complaints are mostly related to delays in getting appointments, shortage of beds and the emergency services.
A woman said that she was suffering from an eye ailment and had sought an appointment to see an ophthalmologist at HGH in October 2013, and an appointment was given for March 22, 2014.
“It took five months to get an appointment. What if the problem had deteriorated during that time,” she asked.
Some others say that there are cases when the primary health centres or the Emergency Department refer a case as urgent to a specialist, but still it is not given priority.
“I went to the Emergency Department at HGH and was directed to see a specialist, but it took four months for me to get the appointment,” said a commentator on a popular Qatari social networking site.
Another said that delays at the HGH were not a new issue. She said that more than a decade ago, in 2001, she wanted her daughter to be fitted with dental braces but never got an appointment.
“After seven years, in 2008, I received a call asking if I still needed the braces. I told them that my daughter had grown up and there was no need for the braces,” she said.
Some others say delays are the norm but it is possible to get an early appointment through recommendations and influence.
Clinics for specialist consultation at HMC hospitals, including the HGH and Women’s Hospital, are open from 7 am to 10 pm, with 15 hours of OPD clinical services each day. Also, clinics open for two hours in the evening, from 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm, for Qatari patients.
Once a patient is referred by a primary health centre or by any other hospital, he/she receives a telephone call from HMC’s Patient Contact Center and an appointment is fixed. In addition, they are reminded of their appointment by phone and SMS.
The Emergency Department at HGH, described as one of the busiest such facilities in the world, is also not free from complaints. Many residents The Peninsula spoke to expressed dissatisfaction at the services.
“Patients who go to the Emergency Department are in real pain, but sadly, on many occasions they are neglected,” said an Indian professional who had been to the Emergency Department once with a problem in one of his ears.
“I was referred by the primary health centre, but at the Emergency Department I was asked to wait for four hours,” he said.
“I saw people with bandages waiting for long,” he added.
A Sri Lankan housewife said that on many occasions women patients had to walk around alone in the hospital to get things done.
“It’s very difficult for the patient to handle everything alone. But sadly this happens most of the time, because the husband or other male relatives are not allowed to accompany the patient,” she said.
She said she had such an experience at Women’s Hospital when she was in a late stage of pregnancy and her request for her husband to be allowed to accompany her was rejected.
Many suggest that the HGH urgently needs to be expanded and the number of staff increased as it is the ultimate and sometimes the sole hospital people can go to for treatment.
“We can go to a private hospital or another public hospital like in Al Wakra, but if the case is critical or urgent we end up at HGH,” said a commentator on social media.
Another commentator asked, “The number of shopping malls, stadiums and festivals in the country is increasing; why not the hospitals, despite the increasing population?”
“The HGH should only treat critical cases and have a separate hospital for specialised care,” suggested another.
In 2011, HMC announced a plan to build a 1,200-bed facility spread over 300,000 square metres in three towers. It also said that a study on the project was under way and it would ease pressures arising from population growth. The facility will be located within Hamad Medical City.
It also announced a plan to expand the HGH Emergency Department, which has undergone expansion and development several times. There was a project to build an integrated emergency building near the current facility by 2014.
The expansion plan further said that the Women’s Hospital will be moved to Hamad Medical City when the facility is ready by 2013. The current Women’s Hospital will be turned into a specialty hospital.
In its 2013/2014 annual report, HMC said HGH, built in 1983, has 600 beds.
The hospital has seen a 1.1 percent increase in outpatients from 2012 to 2013, but inpatient admissions have dropped 0.8 percent and visits to the emergency department have fallen 4.3 percent.
According to the report, a new operating theatre block is under construction in HGH. Once completed, it will significantly expand capacity by nearly doubling the current number of operating rooms. The facility will provide 16 new operation theatres, four specialist theatres and 35 ICU beds.
A new Female Rapid Initial Assessment and Management area was opened in the HGH Emergency Department in 2013. The annual report of HMC claims that the new system has had a significant impact on waiting times and patients’ length of stay.
In December 2013, Hamad’s Trauma Department issued its Trauma Manual, which aims to ensure uniform standards of trauma care across all HMC hospitals, providing clinicians with clear guidance to ensure delivery of consistently high standards of care.
The Women’s Hospital has 330 beds. The number of outpatients increased by 13.9 percent from 2012 to 2013. The number of inpatients increased by 4.3 percent and emergency cases by 8.4 percent. However, the number of deliveries fell by 5.5 percent as many cases were transferred to Al Wakra hospital.
At the end of October 2013, the Women’s and Newborn Health Network was launched. One of its aims is to reduce the number of births at Women’s Hospital and refer cases to other hospitals. It is known that the number of deliveries taking place at Women’s Hospital is high.
Al Wakra hospital, which opened in 2013, has a capacity of 190 beds, which can be extended to 260 beds. The six-storey facility with nearly 3,000 staff at full capacity, including more than 200 doctors, aims to reduce pressure on HGH.
Bigger than HGH in size, Al Wakra Hospital was expected to significantly reduce pressure on HGH, but this has not happened until now. The hospital provides all specialised treatments but critical cases are still referred to HGH.
More than 200 deliveries a month were registered by the end of 2013 at Al Wakra Hospital. Also, 10,000 adults were treated at its emergency department each month.
A Filipina mother who delivered her child at Al Wakra Hospital said, “I was being treated at the Airport health centre and from the seventh month of pregnancy I was referred to Al Wakra Hospital. It’s a big hospital with all facilities but they have less staff, like one or two nurses for one floor. So when we need something we have to wait long.”
THE PENINSULA
Doha: In response to a questionnaire sent by this newspaper to Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) on complaints from patients, the healthcare provider denied the allegations.
With reference to treatment provided to the family that met with a road accident last month in Al Khor, HMC said that it provided the best emergency and hospital care to the patients. They were discharged only after completing the number of days required to meet their clinical needs.
In a statement, HMC also said that it had taken measures to expand its services to serve the growing population, and all patients were given priority on the basis of their health condition.
The statement is as follows:
The road traffic accident involving Um Abdul Rahman’s family was a terrible tragedy and we again extend our condolences in what must be an extremely difficult time. At HMC, we aim to treat each and every patient with the safest, most effective and most compassionate care. When the accident happened we deployed 19 emergency vehicles, all of which arrived in a period between eight and 20 minutes of the original 999 call. The patients were treated in both Al Khor Hospital and Hamad General Hospital (HGH) emergency departments and were admitted at HGH as inpatients. At all times during their treatment, continuity of care was maintained by our clinical and support teams. Um Abdul Rahman and her surviving children were under our care for seven days — a time frame which was determined based on clinical need. All patients were discharged with advice for follow up and the required appointments have been booked across various specialities within a clinically appropriate time frame. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Um Abdul Rahman and her family.
Over the last several years our population growth has trebled and the healthcare needs of the population have become more complex. As the demand for our services has grown, we have continued to increase the number of highly specialised services we offer, in addition to expanding hospital capacity. In the last three years we have opened three new hospitals, three long-term residential care facilities, and acquired extensive state-of-the-art medical equipment in all of our hospitals.
In 2013, we treated over two million patients within Hamad Medical Corporation, including 850,000 emergency visits, 40,000 surgeries, delivered 20,000 babies and provided over 1 million outpatient appointments. Our specialist teams offer clinical programmes across the entire network of eight hospitals which cover the main population centres in Qatar. Our ambulance service, which responded to 132,000 calls last year, has dispatch points covering the entire country as well as a 24-hour Lifeflight service. This ensures the entire country has access to high-quality care at all times. We continue to expand our capacity, including new operating theatres and extending the emergency department at Hamad General Hospital, amongst other projects.
While we operate emergency departments across several of our hospitals, HGH features the nation’s only advanced trauma centre. Cases like Um Abdul Rahman’s highlight the specialised and essential role that our integrated network of care plays in the lives of our patients and the community. A team of specialists and support staff from two major hospitals, our trauma unit, surgical services, rehabilitation, orthopaedics and the ambulance service all came together to provide a multi-disciplinary programme of care for her family.
As the country grows, we will continue to meet the highly specialised healthcare needs of our patients and their families.
THE PENINSULA
