Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy Pic: Baher Amin/The Peninsula
Doha: Qatar’s efforts to significantly improve quality of healthcare and wellbeing of the population were lauded during a conference in Doha.
Healthcare in the country has seen a significant growth with implementation of strategies and policies providing population based care and prevention of diseases, said Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy, President, Association of Directors of Public Health in the UK, speaking on the sidelines of the 4th International Primary Health Care Conference – Qatar 2020.
“What impressed me in Qatar’s public health was the vision, it is absolutely about how do we prevent diseases and enhance health and wellbeing of the population,” she said speaking to The Peninsula.
“Too often people focus on healthcare which is very much treatment. What I liked about the strategies here is very much focused on prevention and health promotion. Focused on what particular groups of populations that have particular needs to be healthy and who are more at risk,” she added.
To mention, the human development pillar of Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030 expresses Qatar’s ambition to develop a healthy population, physically and mentally. It is within the context of progressing closer to QNV 2030 that the National Health Strategy (NHS) 2018-2022 directs the health sector’s next period of growth, as one of eight sector strategies that comprise Qatar’s National Development Strategy (NDS) 2018-2022.
Led by the Ministry of Public Health, the NHS 2018-2022 is an all-encompassing vision for Qatar’s health sector, which sits above all other health strategies to guide the development of the healthcare system.
Dr. Gruchy also emphasised that Qatar’s focus should continue on disease prevention and promotion of wellbeing of the population.
“Qatar has the real challenge not to get trapped into healthcare focused approach but create a healthy population,” she said.
Dr Gruchy delivered a key note speech during the opening session of the 4th International Primary Health Care Conference – Qatar 2020 on ‘Current challenges in health promotion and capacity building in primary health care setting’.
“The fundamental challenge in every healthcare system is how to fund resources to the needed groups. Through strategies Qatar has made a great start of having the vision to overcome challenges,” said Dr Gruchy.
The 4th International Primary Health Care Conference – Qatar 2020 focuses on progress and embrace the future of primary healthcare, provides a platform to share knowledge, facilitates forums to discuss best practices and underline Qatar’s legacy of promoting health and wellness by providing excellence in primary healthcare. The four-day conference will conclude today.
