The number of dental and general clinics at Madinat Khalifa health centre will be increased, a source at the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has told Arabic daily Arrayah. The move aims to reduce the number of patients on the waiting list. Also, an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) clinic will be added to Al-Gharafa health centre and another ENT clinic will be available at Al-Daayen health centre alongside the ultrasonic radiology section. The source pointed out that the PHCC hires international experts to develop the concept of primary heathcare in the country and specify its scope in accordance with the national strategy. PHCC has recently launched a collection of new projects to upgrade and improve services offered at all health centers throughout the country. These include allocating special children clinics for nationals to ease crowding and the launch of an SMS service to book appointments for different clinics and remind parents of schedules for vaccinations. Further, electronic queuing of patients seeing doctors has also been introduced in 18 different health centers. The PHCC strategy aims at easing the procedures and reducing the waiting time for patients. Health centers also have family clinics managed by highly specialised and qualified doctors, in addition to psychiatric centres that provide services to all family members. Patients and visitors can also consult health centers for nutrition-related matters. The centres conduct various health awareness programmes for the benefit of the country’s residents . lThe Emergency Department at the Hamad Medical (HMC) Corporation received 1,420 cases on the fourth day of Eid, which constitutes a significant increase from the number of cases received in previous years. A source from HMC pointed out that the cases received by the Emergency included 56 heart attacks and 11 injured in various road accidents. Four deaths were recorded on Wednesday, one of them as a result of a road accident and the other three due to different illnesses. The other 1,353 cases include various stomach ailments, mainly due to over-eating, diabetes, and hypertension. The sudden increase of food consumption after a complete month of fasting, especially sweets and fat saturated meals, resulted in various stomach and stomach related troubles. Sources at the HMC have urged people to be moderate in this respect and avoid heavy meals. “Well-balanced meals with more vegetables and fruits is advisable”. Further, they recommended that eating immediately before going to bed should be avoided and people should drink more water and follow a regular diet to avoid any trouble or complication. The operations manager of the ambulance service at HMC, Ali Darwish, said that the service received on Wednesday 155 calls for help, of which 73 were emergency cases, 45 road accidents and 82 cases of non-emergency nature . The flying ambulance had to be engaged in response to one case only. Gulf Times

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