The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has provided enough hospital beds to accommodate growing number of COVID-19 patients fuelled by Omicron, the fast-spreading variant.
“A large number of beds are in reserve in the existing dedicated facilities for Coronaviurs patients, apart from those full-fledged facilities which are ready to open any time in case of need,” said Chairman of HMC’s Department of Internal Medicine Dr. Ahmed Al Mohammed.
Speaking on a Qatar TV programme, Dr. Mohammed who is also Chairman of HMC’s Intensive Care Units (ICU), said that the Ministry dedicated three facilities to accommodate COVID-19 patients including Communicable Disease Center (CDC), The Cuban Hospital and Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital with a large number of ICU beds.
“This is part of the preparation, there are many more steps and plans for expanding the facilities in future if needs be,” said Dr. Mohammed. In the third wave of COVID-19, he said, more cases of infection among children were recorded as they did not take vaccines for not being eligible.
“The cases of infection among pregnant women were recorded more during this wave compared to the previous waves. The cases in general community is also higher, this is why we dedicated some facilities to accommodate the cases,” said Dr. Mohammed.
He said that due to growing number of cases among children a facility was dedicated for them which was not needed in the previous waves. “The new facility called Al Maha Center under Al Wakra Hospital with the capacity of 50 beds in general conditions and 24 beds for medical observation and four beds for ICU,” said Dr. Mohammed.
He said that the capacity Al Maha Center dedicated for children could be increased to the highest 140 beds in case of need as “we have enough preparations” to tackle the cases of COVID-19. “Other facilities dedicated for Coronavirus cases ready to accommodate the patients are Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital has the highest capacity of ICU,” said Dr. Mohammed.
He said that The Cuban Hospital is dedicated for women infected with Coronavirus apart from other facilities servicing such patients.
“Our focus is to provide enough beds to accommodate all COVID-19 patients in all stages regardless of their age and medical condition who required admission in general wards or ICUs. We assure to have enough beds in reserve for any sudden unexpected spike in cases. We are moving on this plan amid growing cases of Coronavirus in the country.”
However, he said, there is a large number of beds in reserve at existing COVID-19 hospital facilities apart from those facilities in reserve such as Mesaieed Hospital, Ras Laffan Hospital and Al Wakra Hospital which were dedicated for COVID-19 patients in the past.
To a question about the reason behind the need for COVID-19 patients’ hospital admission, he said that Omicron is fast transmissible infecting large number of people of all age groups in the community.
“So the need of hospitals admission is expected to grow with growing number of cases including elderly, those with chronic diseases and low immunity,” said Dr. Mohammed.
However, he said, so far, the number of cases admitted in hospital is lower compared to those recorded in previous waves.
“We noticed that most of the cases admitted in the hospitals are unvaccinated and those completed six months after taking second dose of COVID-19,” said Dr. Mohammed adding that the similar phenomenon is also recorded in ICUs.
