The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting on Monday at the Tamim bin Hamad Hall under the chairmanship of H.E. Speaker of the Shura Council Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim.

At the beginning of the session, the Council welcomed the country's hosting of the 5th U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which was inaugurated by H.H. the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani yesterday, Sunday.

The Council praised the content of H.H. the Amir's speech at the conference, and His Highness's affirmation of the pride of the State of Qatar in continuing its active role in multilateral international action in various fields like development, humanitarian, human rights, and mediation to enhance international peace and security, and its provision of many Humanitarian and developmental contributions, especially within the framework of strategic partnerships with the United Nations and other leading international institutions, based on its National Vision 2030.

RELATED: H.H. The Amir donates 60 million US dollars towards least developed countries

The Council highlighted what H.H. the Amir referred to in his speech, that there is an obligatory moral responsibility on the rich and developed countries to contribute more to help the least developed countries to overcome the global challenges they face, and that it is a responsibility and not a favour.

The Council affirmed that the country's hosting of such international events reflects Qatar's active role in the international arena, the confidence it enjoys from various organizations and countries, and its world-leading position.

During the session, the Council reviewed the request for general discussion submitted by several of Their Excellencies members on the delay in medical appointments in the public health sector.

In this regard, the members of the Council praised the attention given by the wise leadership to the health sector, which has witnessed a great renaissance and remarkable development over the past years, which led to the classification of the State of Qatar among the developed countries in the provision of health care.

The members noted that the Shura Council, based on its concern for the interests of citizens, finding their needs, and cooperating with various authorities in the country to improve the institutional performance of all sectors, improve the services provided to citizens, and the need to address their deficiencies, the Council has noticed a delay in medical appointments, some of which extend for months.

The members of the Shura Council pointed out that this problem exacerbates the suffering of patients, affects the quality of treatment provided to them, and sometimes forces them to resort to private hospitals to avoid long waiting lists.

Their Excellencies, the members of the Council appreciated the efforts made by the Ministry of Public Health to address this problem and reduce the waiting period for appointments, stressing at the same time the need to study the problem from various dimensions to find out its causes and find radical solutions to it.

After extensive discussions by the members of the Shura Council and presenting their views to find solutions to the problem of late appointments, the Council decided to refer the request for general discussion to the Public Services and Utilities Committee for study and to submit a report on it to the Council.

During the session, the Council approved a draft law amending some provisions of Law No. (18) of 2017 regarding public hygiene, as stated by the esteemed government, after reviewing the Public Services and Utilities Committee report on it and discussing the provisions of the draft law by Their Excellencies the members of the Council.

The draft law included a number of amendments that complement the state's strategic plan to preserve the environment and pay attention to public hygiene.

The session continued as the Council approved a request to extend the work of the Public Services and Utilities Committee to study the request for a general discussion about the violations of some individuals and companies and their impact on the wild environment and to study the request for a general discussion on organizing and monitoring domestic workers recruitment offices.

Source and cover image credit: QNA

Follow us on our social media channels: @ILQlive @ILQlive @ILoveQtr ILoveQatar

Tracy Quirino

Start a discussion