Photo by Salim Matramkot © The Peninsula
A 200-bed field hospital with a dedicated area for COVID-19 care has opened for the workers in Industrial Area.
The hospital can receive 2,000 to 3,000 patients a day. It will not only receive COVID-19 patients but can also treat all other ailments and emergencies. The field hospital is expected to function for a relatively longer period, said Dr. Khalid Abdulnoor Saifeldeen, lead for health care sector in lockdown area, during a media tour of the facility yesterday.
“The capacity and accesses to care has changed with the COVID-19 and this area is under lockdown. So, we had to think of ways to provide with alternative access to healthcare. Here, we have a medication refill system, outpatient clinic, emergency care and observation. But, obviously we can’t provide critical care or treat major trauma. The patients with such conditions are very less in number and they can go to other hospitals. Even COVID-19 critical patients can go to hospitals dedicated for them,” he said.
“This makeshift hospital has huge benefit to the population here; we don’t see patients from outside. We are giving the population here something they deserve but it will compliment other parts of the healthcare system and ease the pressure until this area is unlocked,” he added.
The hospital has 200 staff including doctors and nurses and also an ambulance station. They will provide emergency care and to COVID-19 patients in a separate area of the hospital. All critically ill patients will be stabilized here and shifted to a general hospital.
The initiative to set up the field hospital and its operations are driven by Hamad International Training Center (HITC) part of Hamad Medical Corporation.
“The entire staff at HITC volunteer to support the national efforts in combating OCVID-19. This facility is driven by HITC and supported by staff and resources from the healthcare system,” said Dr. Saifeldeen, who is also the director of HITC.
The field hospital is a unique kind, and it has an emergency department, COVID-19 track to asses and do swabbing test for suspected people, a holding facility and adjoining quarantine facility, said Dr. Rahma Salim, Emergency Medicine Consultant at the field hospital in Industrial Area.
“If a person is suspected to have COVID-19 he will be shifted from the emergency to the COVID-19 track area. There he will be assessed and a swab test will be done. Then he will be shifted to the holding area, which has 80 beds. A person can stay here from 8 hours to a maximum of 24 hours until the COVID-19 test results are received,” she said.
“In case if the person is tested COVID-19 positive and the condition is mild or moderate, he will be shifted to the adjoining facility which can accommodate around 300 to 400 people for two to four weeks,” she added.
Anyone showing severe COVID-19 symptoms will be shifted to a hospital which is dedicated to treat such patients.
Dr. Salim also said that though the field hospital is mainly for male workers on the Industrial Area, women and children will be seen in case of an emergency.
