DOHA: Patients referred from the primary health centers are no more required to visit the Women’s Hospital to book an appointment there with a new referral system being introduced at the hospital’s outpatient department from today.
In the new system, the referral will be sent to the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) Referral Management Office which will call the patient to arrange the appointment.
The aim of this new system is to ensure the most urgent cases receive priority and every patient gets seen by the right specialist at the right time, HMC said yesterday.
If someone has a health concern and needs to see a doctor, unless it is an emergency, they should first go to their Primary Healthcare Center where, if the doctor decides they should see a specialist, they will refer them to an HMC hospital.
In case of an emergency, the patient should go directly to the Emergency Department.
Once the referral has been received by the HMC Referral Management Office it will be checked by a doctor who will decide the right time frame for the patient to be seen and the HMC Patient Contact Center will then call the patient to arrange their appointment with them.
There are also protected appointment times for Qatari patients. Only patients who have been referred to Women’s Hospital will be able to make an appointment there.
If the referral is from a private clinic, the patient should hand deliver the referral to Women’s Hospital and the Referral Management Office will call them to arrange their appointment.
A reminder call and SMS will be sent before the appointment and on the day of the appointment patients are asked to arrive 30 minutes before their allotted time for pre-assessment checks, if any, to be completed.
Nasser Al Naimi, Executive Director of the Center of Healthcare Improvement said: “The implementation of this system for obstetrics and gynecology will ensure that the most urgent cases are handled in a timely manner and all patients will be allotted protected time with the specialist.”
People who want to make any changes in their appointment or cancel an appointment have been asked to contact the Patient Contact Center on 44395777.
The Peninsula
