HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser attends the 32nd International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) conference yesterday. HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, HE the Minister of Public Health Abdullah bin Khalid al-Qahtani, Prof Lord Darzi and other dignitaries are also seen. Credit: AR Al-Baker / HHOPL

By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter

The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) will launch a pilot programme by next month for the licensing and accreditation of healthcare facilities in the country as part of its National Programme for Licensing and Accreditation of Healthcare Facilities.
"The new programme of licensing and accreditation of healthcare facilities will begin from March 2016," stated Dr Aisha al-Ali, manager, Healthcare Facilities, SCH, on the sidelines of the ongoing 32nd Conference of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua).
"The whole process for the pilot programme has been completed," the official told Gulf Times. “We have set up a centre for licensing and accreditation. All the policies and procedures for the programme have been finalised.
“The pilot programme contains training for the survey of the facilities. It will assess and find out how the system can be applicable in the context of Qatar as well as the ground realities. We will take a small portion of the facilities and test the operational side of the programme.”
Dr. Ali pointed out that the programme has two components. “One is the licensing of the facility and the second one is the accreditation. If a facility needs to go through the accreditation, it should be licensed and therefore both are integrated components. About 30% of the accreditation standards are implied in the licensing protocol.”
The accreditation and licensing programme focuses on quality of the services and safety of the patients. The whole programme has been developed in accordance with the international practices. The new programme is part of the National Health Strategy and will aim for the accreditation of ISQua.
The SCH official hinted that all the healthcare facilities in the country, both public and private, will have to undergo the whole programme. However the pilot programme will cover only a small portion of the facilities just to test how the programme works.
Earlier, speaking at the conference HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani asserted that Qatar is keen on making quality the main base of the country’s health system development process.
Qatar Foundation chairperson HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, HE the Minister of Public Health Abdullah bin Khalid al-Qahtani, Hamad Medical Corporation managing director Dr Hanan al- Kuwari, ISQua president David Bates,and World Innovation Summit for Health executive chair Prof Lord Darzi were also present at the opening ceremony of the conference.