Al Waab Health Centre building with natural light filtered inside. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
DOHA: The Primary Health Care Corporation’s (PHCC) newly opened Al Waab Health Centre will not only provide high standards of patient care but also has been designed to promote holistic well-being of the community.
“The environmentally-friendly building also provides a warm and inviting atmosphere to patients,” Musallam Mubarak Al Nabit, Assistant Managing Director for Administrative and Finance Services at PHCC, told The Peninsula.
“Qatar is investing thoughtfully with an aim to provide quality health care and address the growing need for more comprehensive patient-focused medical services. The decision to implement green practices at PHCC begins with a vision and commitment to improve health and wellness of people, while reducing negative impact on the environment,” he said.
“Modern healthcare facilities are large consumers of energy and resources. We have taken efforts to make a change and reduce the consumption of resources,” he added.
The health centre in Al Waab is built in an area of 8,000 sq metres comprising of clinics, allied health, a radiology section, pharmacy and other facilities. The car park area distributed in the two basements can accommodate 407 vehicles at a time.
“It is a state-of art-building in terms of architectural aspects. It has adopted the local architectural principles. The building has natural light filtered inside. It is very specious and has clear separation between all different function areas,” said Niki Georgiou, Executive Director, Facilities and Engineering Directive, PHCC.
“A special attention is given for people with disabilities. There are designated parking for them closer to entrances as well as vertical circulation via elevators. Most importantly, room signage has the braille system to help patients with impaired vision,” she added.
The double storey building of the health centre in Al Waab has a total of 57 clinics for different specialties, including 18 for family medicine. With a comprehensive range of services, the health centre will be running a family medicine model.
“This is the ninth new health centre PHCC has opened. The 10th health centre will open by the end of the year. So it’s a very ambitious programme. We believe it will provide better and easier access to patient care, because of the larger geographical coverage and clinical expansion,” said Georgiou.
The building is designed and built to comply with Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS), the first performance-based system in the MENA region, developed for rating the green buildings and infrastructures.
Residents of Waab Zone 55 area, Azizya, Freej Al Soudan 55 and 54, Mehairja will be mainly at the Al Waab health centre.
Similar to other health centers, the new facility was delivered by Ashghal - the Public Works Authority. A period of four years invested for designing and building the facility.
“It required three to six months for mobilization: For final commissioning of the building, testing systems, installing all medical equipment and furniture, training doctors for medical equipment.
With the opening of Al Waab Health Centre, PHCC operates 26 health centers in the country.
