Doha, Qatar: The medical sector is one of the key areas of activity for Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS). In a typical disadvantaged or affected community, the health care system is absent or lacks sufficient personnel, resources, and medical equipment. As a result, much of the community do not have access to the appropriate and specialist health care they deserve, which weighs heavily on the health conditions and finances of the patients and their families.
In order to ensure good health for vulnerable individuals and communities around the world, most of the foreign interventions of QRCS focus on providing basic, emergency, and mental health care for poor people in affected areas; building the capacity of the local health sector; and supplying the necessary medications, medical equipment, and consumables.
The number of health projects to be implemented by QRCS during 2024 is 49, costing QR41,479,958 in total, to treat 175,638 patients in 10 countries — Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank), Syria, Yemen, Niger, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.
These projects focus on the provision of medications, medical equipment, consumables, and ambulance vehicles; surgeries of various specialisations; dialysis sessions; hearing aids; wheelchairs and other mobility aids; deployment of mobile clinics/pharmacies to remote areas; and installation of solar panels at medical facilities.
For low-income and destitute patients, the high costs of health care and surgeries are a too heavy burden. This often forces them to postpone or cancel the medically required interventions, which ends up in deterioration of health, or even death.
QRCS has a year-round medical convoys programme that involves deploying volunteer doctors and nurses, with all the necessary medical equipment and supplies, to perform medical examinations and surgeries for poor patients in many countries. They provide comprehensive health care services that include diagnosis, treatment, and postoperative care, as well as health education programmes to raise public health awareness and promote healthy and preventive practices.
This year, the programme comprises 22 medical convoys to treat 9,160 patients, at a total cost of QR15,539,200. Many specialisations are covered, including general surgery, urology, cochlear implants, cardiac catheterization/surgery, laparoscopic surgery, neurosurgery, cataract surgery, obstetrics, and pediatrics. The target countries include Palestine (the West Bank), Syria, Yemen, Niger, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Iraq, and Chad..
Thanks to the donations of the benevolent people of Qatar, QRCS implemented 57 health interventions in 2023. Costing QR 58,336,279 (28% of total international spending), these activities helped 3,580,836 patients in Somalia, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bangladesh, Niger, Syria, and Mauritania.
Among the health interventions undertaken by QRCS during 2023 are the provision of medications, consumables, medical equipment, and ambulance vehicles; emergency epidemic response; health education campaigns; rehabilitation and physiotherapy; mental health; prosthetic implants; dialysis; surgery; development/operation of Health facilities; mobile clinics; medical convoys; eye treatment camps; treatment for patients with cancer; neutral monitoring of vaccination campaigns; preventive and therapeutic nutrition; and disability services.
