By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: Patients at Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) pain clinics are likely to get traditional treatments from the Middle East and Far East, according to a senior official.
Services at clinics include a comprehensive evaluation and assessment by a multidisciplinary team of each patient and pain syndrome.
“As the service grows, we will be able to offer a more holistic range of treatments, including acupuncture, chiropractic and traditional medicine from the Middle East and Far East,” Dr Wael Saleem, Consultant Anaesthesiologist and Head of Chronic Pain Management, HMC, and Nicholas Bruce Scott, Senior Consultant in Anaesthesia, told this newspaper.
HMC is setting up a new comprehensive pain service for musculoskeletal disorders at the new Bone and Joint Centre. The new clinic will open apart from the daily pain clinic at Hamad General Hospital and Al Wakrah Hospital.
HMC also has a weekly pain clinic associated with the rehabilitation clinic at Rumailah Hospital and an outpatient pain service at National Centre for Cancer Care and Research which holds three pain clinics a week.
Dr Saleem said, “Our services include a comprehensive evaluation and assessment by a multidisciplinary team of each patient and pain syndrome. Evidence- based treatment programmes are used when available and if not, a roundtable discussion will take place when initiating a treatment which is subsequently audited. We also provide state-of-the-art radiology MRI and ultrasound imaging. Our patient base is increasing every year and we expect to see over 1,000 a year from now on,” he added.
A pain clinic oversees the management of chronic conditions that require extensive assessment and screening to determine the best therapy and outcomes.
An acute pain service is provided by front line medical staff to manage mainly postoperative pain and other acute conditions that have a serious pain component. In this way, if pain is managed properly from the outset, chronic pain should not develop.
In recent years, pain therapy has transitioned to an evidence-based practice as hospitals around the world have started examining what it means to provide quality care for their patients, in terms of medical care and hospital-based patient experience and satisfaction.
“By establishing pain clinics across our network of hospitals, we will be able to increase the range of interventional pain procedures we can offer, which will further consolidate existing acute and chronic pain services,” said Dr Saleem.
The Peninsula
