Doha - The National Health Authority (NHA) is planning to set up a separate corporation to oversee the primary health care sector in the country.
This comes as part of a strategic plan formulated by the NHA to improve the health sector in the country and upgrade it to international standards, Dr Michael Walsh, the NHA's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said at a press conference yesterday.
Walsh said the NHA is currently working with the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) to establish the corporation.
Other priority areas in the strategic plan include health care financing, particularly the introduction of health insurance for the public. He said a decision on how to proceed with the health insurance will be taken in the next few weeks.
A major challenge before the NHA is to complete the transfer of the Qatari and expatriate employees of the erstwhile Ministry of Public Health to the Authority, set up last year through an Emiri decree.
There are more than 1,000 employees, of whom 70 per cent are Qataris. Only a small number of them has been transferred to the NHA.
"We are planning to complete this process by 2007," Walsh said. The NHA is currently working with ictQatar and HMC to develop an information strategy for the health system in Qatar. This project is expected to be completed by the end of this year, he added.
The NHA also seeks to improve the quality of health care services in the country by introducing a professional regulation and licensing system to monitor doctors and paramedics. A regulatory system for prices in the private health care sector would be introduced this year.
Another priority area is getting prepared to meet health emergencies like avian flu and seasonal diseases. Walsh said a vision statement approved by the NHA last month had identified three major challenges facing the health care sector in Qatar -- premature deaths or catastrophic injuries caused by road accidents, work site accidents and diseases affecting children; early detection of long-term conditions like diabetes and cancer; the so-called lifestyle diseases like obesity and heart disease caused by smoking and stress-related illness.
A four-fold strategy has been adopted to address these challenges which include the creation of healthy places to live and work, communication with the population, high-quality hospital care by equipping HMC and special care for the elderly.
Walsh also said the NHA is working with other departments concerned to address the increasing cases of road accidents and work-site accidents in the country. Asked about the problems that many low-paid expatriate workers are facing in procuring a health card and even an identity card, which are now made compulsory to get access to health care services, Walsh said the NHA would look into the matter.
By Staff Reporter
© The Peninsula 2006
