Hospitals planned in Qatar to treat expat labourers

HEALTHCARE PLAN: The number of labourers in Qatar has prompted plans to build healthcare facilities for them. (AFP)

Qatar health chiefs have revealed plans to build hospitals and health centres to exclusively treat the needs of expat labourers in the Gulf state.

The Supreme Council of Health wants to establish three hospitals and five primary health centres in a bid to ease the pressure on existing healthcare facilities.

The hospitals will be located in Doha city, Industrial Area and Al Shamal with the health centres to be set up near the hospitals, said Dr Faleh Mohammed Al Ali, assistant minister for Policy Affairs and director of the Medical Licensing Department at the council in comments published by The Peninsula on Tuesday.

“These facilities are intended mainly for single workers, and not for families. We hope to complete the project in two-and-a-half years," he told the paper.

"The proposed hospitals are expected to reduce the pressure on the existing facilities of the Hamad Medical Corporation and offer high quality health care to labourers," he added.

He said the hospitals would give priority to illnesses that are common among workers like trauma and occupational diseases.

They will offer emergency care, general medicine and general surgery along with some specialties that are relevant to the targeted population.

The facilities would start with 70 or 80 beds in the initial stage and will be upgraded later depending on the demands of the locality, said Faleh Mohammed.

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