DOHA: The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) has asked all private hospitals to put anaesthetists on duty round-the-clock to attend to emergency cases.
All medical practitioners working in the emergency unit must obtain an Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) certificate. They are also required to submit a proof of it to the registration team at SCH. ACLS refers to a set of clinical interventions for urgent treatment of cardiac arrests, strokes and other life-threatening medical emergencies, as well as the knowledge and skills to deploy those interventions.
The hospitals have been given a grace period of three months to comply with the instructions. The Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety Department at SCH has issued a circular to all private hospitals in this regard.
All main hospitals must also develop and implement Emergency Codes Policies and Procedures (including Code Blue) to respond to all codes for cases requiring resuscitation or immediate medical attention within the hospitals, said the circular.
The circular warns of disciplinary action against facilities that fail to comply with the directive, “without further notice.” A senior SCH official told this daily that the directive was part of efforts to improve emergency services in private hospitals.
“The objective is to improve the standards and preparedness of all private hospitals in dealing with emergency cases. It is not enough to appoint qualified ER practitioners; they should be made available in the hospital premises round-the-clock. The presence of anaesthetists has been made mandatory because they are the ones who normally attend to emergency cases,” said the official.The Peninsula
