Officials at the inauguration of the camp yesterday. Right: Workers get tested for blood pressure at the camp.

By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter


About 5,000 low-income Asian expatriates were provided a wide range of medical services at the Asian Medical Camp, yesterday.
The camp, organised jointly by Friends Cultural Centre (FCC), Indian Medical Association’s Qatar Chapter (IMA) and Indian Doctors Club was held at Tariq Bin Zeyad Independent School for Boys.
The one day camp, supported by the Supreme Council of Health (SCH), the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), was sponsored by Ooredoo.
Speaking to Gulf Times, Mohamed Qutub, chairman, FCC governing body, said that about 120 doctors, 200 paramedical staff and about 500 trained volunteers attended to the visitors at the camp.
“The services included consultation, diagnosis, medicines and health awareness programmes.We also provided ophthalmology consultations and about 500 spectacles were provided free of charge to the most deserving. Free health cards also were supplied to the needy.”
“Most beneficiaries were from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Philippines.We had about 2,000 pre-registered workers for the camp. In addition, there were many who had approached us in recent days and for spot registration. Altogether, about 5,000 workers have benefited from the camp.”
Dr Sameer Moopen, president, IMA, said the organisation was always supportive of such initiatives. “Many of the doctors of our organisation have attended to a large number of workers. This year, we also had the facility to provide the lipid profile screening for all those who had come fasting. We could screen about 600 people for cholesterol.”
At the camp, Hamad Training Centre gave a presentation on basic life support while the Traffic Department organised an awareness programme. There were also opportunities for the visitors to donate blood at the Mobile Blood Bank, HMC and to sign agreements for organ donation with HMC’s organ donation centre.
During the event, culinary expert Anil Kumar spoke about food safety. There were also talks on ‘Truth about Vitamin D and Sunlight’ by Dr Firjith, ‘Lifestyle Diseases’ by Dr Ravindran, ‘Complication of Diabetes’ by Dr Mohamed Shaheen,  ‘Women’s Health’ by Dr Kumari Joy and ‘Mental Health’ by Mohamed Yasir T K.
Earlier, Naji Abdul Rabb al-A’ji, director, Private Associations and Institutions at the Labour Ministry, inaugurated the camp.
RK Singh, deputy chief of mission, Indian embassy; Abdunnasar al-Yafie, executive director, Community Development, Qatar Charity; Fatima al-Kuwari, director, Public Relations, Ooredoo;  Mariyam Yaseen al-Hammadi, executive director, Public Relations and Communications,  PHCC; Lt Col. Ibrahim al-Sameeh, secretary general, Permanent Committee for Drugs and Alcohol Affairs; Khalifa al-Yahri, assistant  public relations director, HMC  and Dr Mohamed Abdul Rahman Noor, public health specialist, SCH  spoke at the inaugural function.
KC Abdul Latheef, chairman of the organising committee presided over the inaugural session while Dr Moopen gave a briefing about the camp.