HE Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani paid yesterday (February 16) an inspection visit to Hamad Hospital General Hospital's new Emergency Services building, reported Qatar News Agency (QNA).

At the beginning of the visit, His Excellency toured the building during to check on the various medical departments, facilities and modern medical equipment that are used to ensure the provision of the highest-quality medical services to patients. His Excellency also listened to a detailed overview of the new facility. It touched on the stages of completing the new emergency services building, which is four times bigger than the old building. In addition to the diagnostic and therapeutic services it provides through qualified and trained medical and nursing staff, as well as links and passageways it has with Hamad General Hospital buildings and other private facilities dedicated for patients and their families.

His Excellency was accompanied on the visit by a number of their excellencies ministers and ranking officials at Hamad Medical Corporation.

HE Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari said during the tour that the construction of the new facility has reached its final stages, noting that it will increase the size of the current emergency department by more than four times, thus providing more capacity to provide care for a bigger numbers of patients who seek the emergency departments for treatment from a variety of reasons, including critical cases and serious injuries. Her Excellency confirmed that the new building is set to open later this year.

Her Excellency added that the total area of the emergency building is about 30 thousand square meters, split between the 27 thousand square meters of the new building and about three thousand square meters of the old building that will be redeveloped. The new building consists of four floors and 297 treatment rooms. This makes the new facility one of the region's largest for specialized emergency care. The new building will also include 14 operating rooms and 23 rooms for diagnostic radiology of various types, in addition to the building of multi-storey parking capacity for 798 cars and emergency helipad.

The new building is located opposite Hamad Emergency General Hospital's existing emergency room and will provide a comprehensive package of diagnostic and therapeutic facilities for emergency cases, including short-stay rooms, a rapid treatment unit and an Hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The project also has the capacity to handle disasters. It includes a training center, education and administrative services as well as diagnostic radiology and laboratory for analysis and pharmacy. Routes linking the new building with other parts of the hospital will be created to ensure more efficient patient transport, including a direct route connecting the building and the adjacent new operating theaters building and the intensive care unit of Hamad General Hospital.

Hamad's emergency are one of the busiest emergency services center in the country, registering 429 thousand visits last year. The annual number of visits to all emergency departments of Hamad Medical Corporation reached 1.2 million in 2018. Emergency visits recorded a 2.2 percent increase between 2016 and 2018. Emergency checkups, treatment and departure were conducted within four hours of entry for about 79 percent of those who sought emergency care.

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Khadiza Begum

Content Writer

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