Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has opened a Paediatric Continuity Clinic (PCC) at Hamad General Hospital’s (HGH) outpatient department.
The new clinic which was inaugurated by Hanan al-Kuwari, managing director, HMC, features eight themed treatment rooms, provides general outpatient continuity care for children. It is staffed by a multi-disciplinary team of nurses, paediatricians, and medical residents, and compliments existing specialty paediatric clinics at the hospital. The PCC is open Sunday to
Thursday from 7 am – 3 pm.
The new clinic is operated under a patient-centred care model, according to Dr al-Kuwari. “The patient-centred care model at the PCC means that patients will not have to move around from place to place. Instead, they are assigned a treatment room, where the nurse, doctor, paediatric specialist or medical resident comes to them,” said al-Kuwari.
“Children regularly visiting the clinic will be seen by the same multidisciplinary team over time, creating a closer relationship between the patient, family and their healthcare provider and fostering familiarity and accumulated knowledge of a patient’s health
history,” she added.
Parents and children who visit the PCC will likely be seen by the same medical team throughout their association with the clinic.
Doctor and resident training is also a feature of the new clinic, according to HMC’s deputy chief medical officer for medical education, Dr Abdullatif al-Khal.
“We will be using the clinic as a base for a number of our doctors and resident paediatricians, who will gain valuable insight into the high quality of multidisciplinary care that HMC provides,” said
Dr al-Khal.
Prof Ibrahim al-Janahi, senior consultant, paediatric pulmonary division, led the development of the PCC, and said the clinic’s services will be developed in three stages.
“The initial idea was for us to trial a one-stop shop for children, similar to the general practice medicine you see in other countries like the United States. Development of the clinic’s services will be in three stages: firstly, general paediatric medicine, the second stage will be regular check-ups to track growth and development, and thirdly, we will move into complex cases that require subspecialty medicine that we will service over long periods of time,” said Prof al-Janahi.