Qatar’s healthcare system has been lauded for its efficiency and excellent service extended to citizens and residents alike. Even during the current period of COVID-19 pandemic, the system under the Ministry of Public Health and the Supreme Council for Crisis Management, is doing an exemplary service to the state by working round the clock tirelessly to mitigate and prevent the spread of coronavirus, which has overwhelmed almost every country’s healthcare sector. While healthcare workers, even in developed countries are struggling under the burden of the virus impact, Qatar’s healthcare system is running in full steam with its world-class experts and state-of-the art equipment and facilities.
The country has been successful in setting up additional facilities to meet the increasing demand during the pandemic by dedicating several hospitals exclusively for the service of COVID-19 patients, establishing new hospitals and refurbishing and expanding the existing service. Qatar has even started producing some medical supplies locally, for which the country had been dependent on imports.
Recently, the Head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Hamad Medical Corporation, Dr. Einas Al Kuwari, said that the daily laboratory capacity for COVID-19 tests will reach a whopping 30,000 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests by the end of July, while the current laboratory capacity amounts to 20,000 daily.
Hamad Medical Laboratories, a wing of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), conducts various test to diagnose COVID-19, including PCR and serological tests. Such tests are the only way to detect the virus infection so the quicker the results, the faster the patient gets the needed care. As Dr. Al Kuwari said the testing facilities work round the clock, beginning with 16 percent compared the current operating capacity of 100 percent of male and female employees who were trained from various department of medical laboratories and some other state institutions. From the beginning of the pandemic daily checks to detect COVID-19 using PCR tests, which is the most fool-proof test for the disease, increased 75 times.
For a country like Qatar, with a population of less than three million, the 30,000 test capacity is huge and it will go a long way in testing a large portion of the population. At the beginning of the pandemic, the World Health Organisation said the most efficient way to stem the spread of the virus is to test, test and test. Hence the 30,000 testing capacity for Qatar by the end of next month will go a long way in containing the contagion. This is the latest example of the farsightedness of Qatar’s leadership and as usual this time also the country is taking a great leap ahead.
