The State of Qatar has, over the decades, built a state-of-the-art healthcare system, capable of meeting any challenges. The healthcare network supervised by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and led by the Hamad Medical Corporation and the Primary Health Care Corporation won the accolades for handling the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. MoPH was able to provide the best healthcare to each patient even at the peak of the pandemic.
The government has also been working to develop overall healthy cities with healthy environment for citizens, residents and visitors. In this context, the World Health Organization is also studying to award ‘Healthy City’ status to Doha and Al Rayyan in Qatar. A WHO delegation is visiting the country to assess the request by MoPH for obtaining WHO’s ‘Healthy City’ accreditation for the two municipalities.
The Ministry of Public Health and its partners in the various sectors of the country are seeking adoption of the municipalities of Doha and Al Rayyan as ‘Healthy Cities’ by WHO. This is part of the Ministry’s plan for inclusion of country’s five cities, including the municipalities of Al Wakra, Al Khor and Al Shamal, among WHO’s ‘Healthy Cities’.
One of the objectives of the National Health Strategy 2018-2022 is for at least one city to have the accreditation of a ‘Healthy City’ by WHO by 2022 via implementing intersectoral collaboration under the ‘Health in All Policies’ priority, as there is a strong commitment in Qatar on healthy cities.
The WHO team visited Al Dafna area of Doha Municipality, and the Education City of Al Rayyan Municipality, where they met with a variety of stakeholders from different sectors and expressed great satisfaction with the level of cooperation and interaction.
These efforts are reflected at the national level through the adoption of the newly-designed health city logo for the State of Qatar, which is an octagonal one, and a well-known Arab and Islamic pattern representing the eight municipalities in the State of Qatar. WHO Healthy Cities is a global movement working to put health high on the social, economic and political agenda of city governments by promoting health, equity and sustainable development through innovation and multi-sectoral change.
Qatar’s health sector has made great advancements in medical education, research and innovation. Recently, a multi-disciplinary team of HMC successfully performed Qatar’s first robotic pancreatic surgery. Officials said the procedure’s success underlined healthcare sector’s journey to provide the best quality care with the most advanced treatment modalities. Significant advances have been made throughout Qatar in robotic surgery and treatment.
