DOHA: A Paediatric Continuity Clinic (PCC) has officially been opened in Hamad General Hospital’s Outpatient Department, operated under a patient-centred care model.
Dr Hanan Al Kuwari, Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Managing Director, inaugurated the clinic, which features eight themed treatment rooms and provides general outpatient continuity care for children.
“The patient-centred care model at the PCC means that patients will not have to move around from place to place. Instead, they are assigned a treatment room, where the nurse, doctor, paediatric specialist or medical resident comes to them,” said Dr Al Kuwari.
“Children regularly visiting the clinic will be seen by the same multidisciplinary team over time, creating a closer relationship between the patient, family and their healthcare provider, and fostering familiarity and accumulated knowledge of a patient’s health history,” she added. The PCC is staffed with a multi-disciplinary team of nurses, paediatricians, and medical residents, and compliments existing speciality paediatric clinics at the hospital. The PCC is open from Sunday to Thursday from 7am to 3pm.
Parents and children who visit the PCC will likely be seen by the same medical team throughout their association with the clinic, including medical residents who are assigned patients they take care of throughout their training at the clinic.
Doctor and resident training is also a feature of the clinic, according to HMC’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Medical Education, Dr Abdullatif Al Khal.
“We will be using the clinic as a base for our doctors and resident paediatricians, who will gain valuable insight into the high quality of multidisciplinary care HMC provides,” said Dr Al Khal.
HMC Senior Consultant Paediatric Pulmonary Division, Professor Ibrahim Al Janahi, led the development of the PCC, and said the services will be developed in three stages. “The initial idea was for us to try a one-stop shop for children similar to the general practice medicine you see in other countries like the US. Development of the clinic’s services will be in three stages: First, general paediatric medicine, the second will be regular check-ups to track growth and development, and third, we will move into complex cases that require subspeciality medicine we will provide over long periods of time,”
The Peninsula
