Aster officials announcing the opening of the new clinic yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

Aster Medical Centre, a division of Aster DM Healthcare, a leading healthcare chain in the Middle East and India, yesterday announced the opening of its facility in Doha’s Al Ghanim area.

The new facility is located behind New World Centre. The clinic has been relocated from its first centre in Musherib.

The announcement was made at a press conference attended by Dr Nazar Moopan, group medical director Aster DM Healthcare; Dr Sameer Moopan, CEO, Aster DM Healthcare in Qatar; Nikhil Joseph, CRM manager; and John Francis, operations
manager.

The new Aster Medical Centre was inaugurated by Sheikh Ali Abdulla Ahmed Ali al-Thani. The clinic has begun its operations with general medicine, orthopaedics, ENT, blood sample collection unit and pharmacy departments. Dental, gynaecology and X-ray are the other additional facilities which will be made available for the patients in the coming days.

The clinic is also associated with all major insurance companies to ensure convenience to the patients.

Dr Nazar Moopan said: “Our aim has always been to reach out to various communities residing in Qatar and other GCC countries and deliver high-quality services to our patients. The opening of the clinic in Al Ghanim will clearly help us achieve this aim.”

Dr Sameer Moopan said: “We have always given importance to quality healthcare for all at an affordable cost and we always strive to deliver utmost care to our patients. Our sincere belief is that comprehensive healthcare should be made available to people of all the communities.”

‘Hospital to be ready by 2016’

By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter

The first hospital of Aster Medical Centre in Qatar is expected to be ready by early 2016, according to top

officials of the medical group.

The new 50-bed hospital spread over 6,800sq m, is coming up near Family Food centre in at the Old Airport area.

Dr Nazar Moopan, group medical director, Aster DM Healthcare, said the construction of the hospital project would start shortly. “We are awaiting the final approval from the authorities. Once we get the final approval and the building permit, we will start the construction which is expected to start by the end of this month.”

Dr Sameer Moopan, CEO, Aster DM Healthcare Qatar, said the contract for the construction was awarded yesterday. “We finalised the construction company and the contract was awarded yesterday. We expect to get the final approval by October 20 and the construction most probably will start by the end of the month. The construction period is estimated to be 14 months and we expect to start the operations by
early 2016.”

Dr Sameer added: “We are also planning to bring our expertise in retail pharmacy to Qatar. We are the largest retail pharmacy network in the UAE. We will venture into the sector in Qatar soon.”

He added that the Aster group is already enlisted in the National Health Insurance Scheme (Seha).

Dr Nasser said more super specialties will be added to the clinics soon. “We are planning for endocrinology as well as other specialties in some of the clinics. When the hospital becomes operational, we will be able to provide most of the super specialties. In addition we will also bring expert doctors from our organisations to Qatar for specialised treatment of our clients.”

Dr Sameer also pointed out that the group was planning to get accredited by some of the reputable agencies. “We have already started the groundwork for accreditation for the clinics. JCI is only for hospitals and there is no specific agency for the accreditation of clinics. We are working on a feasible idea for the purpose.”

According to him, the group has plans for setting up a clinic in Umm Salal under Medcare, a higher brand of the group.

Aster Medical Centre, a division of Aster DM Healthcare, is a leading healthcare chain operating several clinics in the Middle East and India.