By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter

Hundreds of additional parking spaces will soon be available on the Hamad General Hospital (HGH) and Women’s Hospital premises as a multi-storey parking facility there is nearing completion, a senior official disclosed on Wednesday.
“The facility is getting ready. It will be opened soon. The additional several hundreds of parking slots will solve the parking constraints to a great extent,” said Ali Abdulla al-Khater, executive director, corporate communications, HMC.
However, he did not give a specific date for the opening of the new parking facility. “All I can say is that it will be opened soon as the construction is getting completed. As soon as the contractors hand over the building, we will be able to open it for the public.”
Al-Khater admitted that lack of enough parking space was one big issue that the patients and their visitors had been facing at the Hamad General Hospital. He pointed out that the HMC had taken adequate measures to solve this problem and more parking spaces would be added as more and more expansion activities were going on at the location and at Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City.
“We are adding more parking spaces near all the hospitals. Sometimes, people may have to park at distant places and walk to the hospitals. We are trying our level best to solve this problem.”
The growing population coupled with the fast growing number of vehicles in Qatar has made it a daunting task to find a parking slot, not only at the Hamad General Hospital but also at souqs and near several government offices.
Al- Khater said many people were hesitant to utilise the available facilities at the HGH. “We have also got the valet services. People can make use of it for their own convenience as they can get dropped at the main entrance of the hospital conveniently. Moreover, the valet parking charge is only QR 15 for three hours,” he added.
Al-Khater also said that with the introduction of the national medical insurance scheme Seha, there has been a slight drop in the number of people approaching HMC for minor consultations. Seha is currently available only to citizens.
“Earlier, people used to come to HMC for all types of ailments. Now they can approach other hospitals and clinics for minor cases such as tooth-related problems and get their treatment done at these places. But, for most of the major problems, people still prefer to come to HMC.”
HMC, in its facilities master plan that was unveiled a few months ago, had specified that it would double the number of hospital beds across its network of hospitals and triple the number of parking spaces.
As per the plan, between 2015 and 2030, hospital beds will increase from 2,100 to more than 4,200 and car parking spaces will increase from 8,000 to 24,000. The expansion will have a significant and positive impact on the delivery of healthcare services in Qatar, HMC added.