Age limit for pediatric care to be increased soon

DOHA: The age limit for pediatric care in Qatar will be increased soon and trauma care will be included in pediatric emergency services, said a senior official yesterday.
The age for pediatric care will be increased from 14 to 18 years and a new area of trauma care will be incorporated in paediatric emergency services, Dr Khalid Al Ansari, Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine and Medical Director of Pediatric Emergency Services at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) told The Peninsula, while speaking on the sidelines of the second Pediatric Emergency Medicine Conference. The three-day Pediatric Emergency Medicine Conference opened yesterday and plenary sessions were held in the mornings and sessions dedicated to participants’ individual learning needs were held in the afternoons. Jointly organised by HMC and Department of Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine, the conference gathered more than 600 experts at Grand Hyatt Doha to discuss about several topics related to pediatric emergency medicine. Around 60 international attendees and several speakers are attending the conference from countries including Oman, the United States and Canada.
The conference will feature both local and international experts who will discuss current best practice in the treatment of common and critical pediatric emergency conditions. A number of specialized areas related to pediatric emergencies for healthcare professionals working in this field of medicine will also be discussed.
Participants include emergency physicians, primary healthcare physicians, nurses and more than 100 persons from the emergency medical services (EMS).
“It is a multidisciplinary conference that is meant for uplift of the level knowledge and education of different disciplines that takes care of pediatric patients who seek emergency services,” Dr Al Ansari said.
The discussions and learning sessions during the conference will help pediatric care clinicians provide even better care to children with urgent and emergency health issues and this, in turn, will result in a happier and healthier pediatric population, he added. The conference has four tracks as EMS, nursing, child abuse and pediatric trauma.
“The conference will discuss and talk about hot topics in pediatrics emergency and related to child health specially to trauma care as we are uplifting the trauma care to be incorporated into pediatric emergency services very soon,” he informed.
Separate discussions will be held on treatment and management of minor traumas such as fractures and burns as well about complex trauma,” said Dr Al Ansari. “In the child abuse track, experts will discuss to increase the knowledge on attending cases of child abuse and about services available by different stakeholders for those who seek help. The EMS track will focus on management of pediatric patients while transferring them,” he added.
Also according to Dr Al Ansari, at present in Qatar the age for pediatric care is between zero and 14 years and it will be soon change to 18.
“Patients are not mature adults until the age of 18 and the patients would require special expertise and staff in providing treatment to such cases,” he said.