Doha - The government's planned National Insurance Scheme will have immense positive implications on private hospitals and Al Ahli Hospital is all set to cope with the expected demand pressure, said Managing Director and CEO, Abdulwahed Al Mawlawi.
"We do expect that and that is the reason why we are growing exponentially in all fields. We will be doubling our staff in the next six to eight months," said Al Mawlawi at a news conference here yesterday to announce Medicare Group Company's first-half financials.
The Urban Planning and Development Authority (UPDA) already approved construction of the first two additional buildings with two more being planned at the hospital premises.
The facilities will more than double the bed capacity of the hospital from the current 250 beds. They will be housing more clinics, healthcare centres focusing on such fields as diabetics, asthma and hypertension, to name just a few. A separate autonomous building which needs a special setup is being envisioned within the facilities for psychiatric treatment.
The actual construction of the extension will start sometime by the end of this year and is slated for completion within the next three years.
"We will have three or four buildings. This will allow us to develop our bed capacity from 250 at present to at least 500 even more. The new buildings will house additional beds and clinics as we are expanding in all directions," said Al Mawlawi.
He said with the 250 beds the hospital cannot have all the sub-specialty it would like and with more beds there will be room to cover all sub-specialties such as neurology or surgery or ophthalmology
Besides, Al Ahli Hospital is expected to more than double its staff strength to a total of between 1,000 and 1,200 including doctors, nurses, technicians and administrative employees within the next six to eight months, Al Mawlawi said.
He said between 20 and 25 doctors will join the hospital within the next two months and the number of nurses is expected to double.
"We started with 12 doctors and now we have about 80 doctors. We had a total of 125 staff and we now have over 680. We are expanding on all levels," said Al Mawlawi.
He said at least 80 percent of the doctors at Al Ahli are consultants with some holding more than one qualification.
Speaking about the company's strategy, Al Mawlawi said: "Our strategy is derived from our name 'Al Ahli' in Arabic means either of two things: family or public at large. We are always trying to attract ordinary 'guests' (a term he prefers to 'patient')."
"To us huge corporate institutions are just icing on the cake but the cake is the working guests. That is our strategy which is based on serving individuals," he said referring to companies like RasGas, Qatargas and ExxonMobil which have tied-up with Al Ahli.
© The Peninsula 2008
