Doha - The National Health Authority (NHA) has launched a new database that provides detailed information about all the licensed private physicians practising in the country.
The database in English is available at the NHA website www.nha.org.qa. People can access information about any physician by entering the name, ID number, licence number or specialty of the doctor concerned.
All private physicians, holding an NHA licence have already been listed in the database. New doctors will be entered as soon as they procure the licence. However, dentists are not included as NHA is planning to set up a separate database on them, it was disclosed at a press conference yesterday.
"Those who are not in the list do not hold a valid licence from the NHA and are not permitted to practise in the country. Thus, the database will help the public to check the authenticity of all medical practitioners here," said Dr Michael Walsh, NHA's Chief Executive Officer.
Dr Faleh Mohamed Hussain Ali, the new director of NHA's Medical Licensing Committee, said an Arabic version of the database will be available soon. Until then, all the Arabic speaking people can place their queries about any private physician through the helpline 4473114.
NHA has plans to set up a similar database for other private medical professionals such as nurses, laboratory technicians at a later stage, said Faleh.
The database contains details of doctors' qualifications, place of work and any restrictions on their practice. About 350 physicians are currently listed in the database.
The officials urged the public to inform the licensing committee if any names have been left out.
"If we get any such complaints we will immediately launch an investigation. If the person is found to be working without a licence, it is a serious matter. It is also possible that the licence was not renewed, which is a different issue," said Faleh.
Under the law, all doctors are required to renew their license annually. "But we are reviewing this rule so that the doctors won't have to renew the license quite often," said Walsh. He added that all physicians need to undergo a medical check up while seeking a renewal of their license.
© The Peninsula 2008
