Image used for representation.
Families have been urged to take regular action for preventive healthcare as it is crucial first step to improve community health.
Parents should take their children for regular check-ups as recommended by international paediatric healthcare organisations, according to Dr Sharda Udassi, Senior Attending at Sidra and Associate Professor of Clinical Paediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.
“It is important to have continuity of healthcare, which means to make sure that you see the same clinician, who gets to know you well and you have a strong trusting relationship with. We all community members need to be pro-active for our healthcare with healthy lifestyle which includes healthy eating habits, regular physical activity and work-life balance,” she told The Peninsula.
She also insisted that encouraging the community to make healthy lifestyle habits is everyone’s responsibility.
“We need strong community healthcare advocates to help our population achieve healthy life style, which includes healthy food options for kids at school and when in market, minimising unhealthy, processed food availability, encouraging schools to have more physical activity for all kids that happen throughout the year,” said Dr Udassi.
Dr Udassi serves as Physician Director of Quality for The Children’s Hospital Clinical Management Group (CCMG)- one of the three management groups at Sidra Medicine and as the Pediatric Medicine Department and Outpatient Pediatric Infusion Center.
“We work as an interdisciplinary team, getting input from multiple pediatric subspecialist to assure all aspect of child’s healthcare needs are fulfilled, in the most efficient and cost effective way. Serious, life threatening, urgent healthcare taken care of in the hospital, and when things are stable, to a point that it can be taken care of in clinic then we continue to support the child’s healthcare and family in our clinics for follow up and long-term healthcare,” she said.
“At the Outpatient Pediatric Infusion Center, we can provide test and treatments that can be done safely in clinic, decreasing the need for hospital admissions. This is in line with the healthcare system moving more towards providing safe and effective healthcare outside hospital, to minimize disruption in family life at home,” she added. In the last four years Dr Udassi has initiated or been active member of various committees and workgroups that work on improving the quality of healthcare in Sidra Medicine, nationally with Hamad Medical Corporation, Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute and Ministry of Public Health.
