DOHA: Patients can now take medical advice over telephone from their physician in case of emergency, with the opening of exclusive family clinics at select health centres.
If the doctor is not readily available or an emergency case occurs after the centre’s working hours, the patient should go to the emergency unit of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
The doctor concerned will be notified about the patient’s admission to hospital, and the hospital will coordinate with him to visit the patient and participate in the treatment process in cooperation with the medical team there, according to Dr Amal Al Ali, Family Medicine Consultant at Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC).
PHCC, in collaboration with Hamad Medical Corporation, opened the continuous care clinics in seven health centres: West Bay, Al Rayyan, Madinat Khalifa, Al Gharrafa, Umm Salal, Mesaimeer, and Airport.
The clinics operate on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays from 4pm to 8pm.
More health centres will have family clinics in the near future, PHCC said yesterday.
“When a patient visits a health centre, he is given the choice of obtaining the required care through the family medicine clinic for continuous care. If the patient agrees, he will be given an appointment card to follow up with the doctor he chooses during the specified days for each health centre,” said Al Ali.
Dr Mona Taher, Family Consultant at West Bay Health Centre, said these clinics aim at providing preventive and curative services to individuals and families through their different stages of life. This is a major step towards obtaining accreditation from Accreditation Council for Medical Education.
The clinics focus on treatment of common diseases and early detection of diseases through periodic check-up and screening programmes and follow up on diseases, in particular chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
The clinics also provide medicines for hypertension, high cholesterol, asthma and other diseases. They also seek to build good relations between the family physician and family members and focus on the psychological and social condition of patients as both factors have a significant impact on the symptoms and diagnosis.
Family medicine utilises the best ethical criteria in healthcare involving healthy lifestyle, drugs, mental health and alternative medicine.
The Peninsula
