(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Doha: In a bid to keep the community safe and control the spread of COVID-19, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) restarted telephone consultation on February 10 to all outpatient services to reduce the accumulation of patients.
Dr. Khalid Al Rumaihi, Head of Urology at HMC, who is managing the Urgent Consultation Service told The Peninsula that receiving care via telephone is a drastic change for many patients, most medical issues can be resolved through telemedicine.
According to him the services is bridging the gap between patients and hospital during the pandemic.
'Similar to the arrangements done during the beginning of the pandemic, all new and follow up appointments across the HMC hospitals will be over the telephone until the number of COVID-19 cases reduce, he said.
'We have experience and succeeded in providing high-quality health care and virtual consultation to patients. We have re-introduced the telephone consultation as a measure to ensure the safety of patients, staff and the community.
"Every patient who has an appointment at any of the HMC hospitals will be contacted and a telephone consultation will be fixed with the attending physician. The doctor will arrange a face-to-face appointment if needed and patient will be informed by the clinic, he said.
According to Dr. Al Rumaihi, during the consultation the attending physician will decide about the next follow up appointment either to be face-to-face or virtual. Also patients who need radiology or laboratory services will be directed to departments concerned and their electronic medical records will be forwarded, he said.
Dr. Al Rumaihi also said that services including Urgent Care Consultation, issuing sick leave certificates remotely, medication refill delivery to patient's home will continue.
Physician-led Urgent Care Consultation service is for non-life-threatening conditions and is currently available for urology, orthopedics, general surgery, general medicine, ENT, dermatology, neurology, dental, hematology, medical oncology, pediatrics, gynecology, geriatrics, pain management cardiology, and mental health.
Any member of the public, even visitors can access the urgent consultation service by calling 16000 between 8am and 3pm on weekdays.
Dr. Al Rumaihi urged the public to follow all COVID-19 precautionary measures and receive the vaccine when they are eligible.
'At this point of time it is important for everyone to follow all COVID-19 precautionary measures including wearing face masks, maintaining hand hygiene, keeping social distancing, avoiding gathering and crowded places, he said.
'Also people should consider taking the COVID-19 vaccine once they are in the eligible category, because it is very important for considerable number of people in the country to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for us to return to normal life, Dr. Al Rumaihi added.
HMC's Urgent Consultation Service, which was launched following the COVID-19 outbreak and suspension of face-to-face outpatient appointments in March 2020, received 197,000 calls between its launch and 31 December 2020, with a 95% response rate. A recent survey involving 1,000 service users showed 88 percent of the respondents showed satisfaction with the service.
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