Doha: Minister of Public Health (MoPH) H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari inaugurated PHCC's South Al Wakra Health Center today. Dr Mariam Abdulmalik, Managing Director of PHCC and a number of officials in the health sector attended the opening ceremony.
The new HC will receive patients during the official working hours between 7am to 11pm, Sunday to Thursday.
The Minister toured the centre after the opening ceremony and was briefed about the services available for patients, as well as about the various specialized clinics and other facilities.
Her Excellency stressed that the plan to open a number of new health centers in the country seeks to meet the increasing needs of the public for primary health care services, taking into account the geographical distribution and population density of each area in which a health center is located.
Dr Mariam Abdulmalik, Managing Director of PHCC, mentioned that the new HC has been provided with all necessary requirements to deliver an outstanding health and medical services for optimal use.
With the launch of South Al Wakra HC, the number of PHCC HCs increased to 28, distributed across all regions of the country, where a number of patients in the zone will be transferred to the new HC, which will have a positive impact on booking appointments, especially for specialized clinics. In the first year, the HC's capacity will be 5,000 patients, then it will gradually increase to 10,000 patients.
The services covered in the main building include a pharmacy, general clinics (six clinics), dental clinic (one), pediatric clinic (two clinics), medical labs, radiology section (including X-Ray & ECG room), isolation room, and Masjid building.
Spread over an area of about 3,000sq m, South Al Wakra HC includes a single-storey main building with a main clinical building (health center) covering nine clinics, annex buildings, a mosque, support services building, guards building, monitoring chamber, an electrical and mechanical maintenance annex, a garage for ambulances, and 127 parking slots.
The buildings design also reflects the heritage and culture of Qatar without compromising international standards of safety for fire protection, besides green buildings and a 3-star rated sustainability.
The project design has considered requirements of people with special needs, including signage messaging, illustrations and Braille script, comfortable toilets, wide walkways for easy movement, auto-sensor doors, and reception desks with convenient height, besides car parking spaces close to the main entrances and ramps in place of steps.
The design of the new health centers come in accordance with the highest standards of quality and safety and with the standards of the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS), where architectural and operational considerations were taken to accomplish a 3-star environmental level in terms of energy saving and environment preservation. This includes using solar energy for the purpose of in-house water heating, using natural sunlight through panoramic roof windows, allowing sun light in to save a quite bit of electricity, which is used in lights and to disinfect the place as much as possible, having a rational consumption of water inside and outside the building, and providing growing green areas around the facility.
Patients can use PHCC's Nar'aakom mobile application to register in or transfer to the new South Al Wakra HC, where the services cover some of the neighborhoods of zone 90 according to the national address. The new HC will provide services through the appointments system and the walk-in system after classification.
