Al Khor Hospital (AKH), a member of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), has seen a significant increase in the number of visits at its Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department’s outpatient, inpatient, and emergency clinics, in addition to a notable increase in the number of births at the hospital.
The number of outpatient clinics for obstetrics and gynaecology at AKH has doubled, and evening consulting clinics have also been opened every Sunday and Tuesday to cope with the increase in the number of visits.
“This is aligned with HMC’s commitment to provide the best possible care and services to patients. The number of visits to outpatient clinics from the beginning of this year until the end of June reached 11,158, compared to the number of visits to the clinics in the first half of 2014, which was 7,938. This is an increase of 40%,” said Dr Mariam Khamees al-Saqqa, senior consultant and acting head of AKH’s Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department.
Dr al-Saqqa added, “The number of patients who visited the outpatient clinics during 2014 was 16,005 patients, of whom 3,224 were Qatari patients and 12,781 were non-Qatari patients. This includes gynaecological clinics, follow-up clinics for pregnant women, infertility clinics, assisted reproduction clinics and postnatal clinics.”
According to Dr al-Saqqa, the emergency clinic at the department received 7,437 visits in the first half of 2015 compared to 5,731 visits for the same period in 2014; this is a 30% increase in emergency visits. The total number of emergency visits reached 11,667 at the end of 2014, of whom 3,512 were Qatari patients and 8,155 were non-Qatari patients, and the number of physicians was also doubled for the morning shifts as a result.
There were 2,286 patients admitted to the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department in 2014, according to AKH’s Admissions Department. This includes 292 patients at the obstetrics section, 1,194 patients at the postnatal section, and 800 patients at the maternity section.
The bed occupancy rate ranged between 73 and 100% per month throughout 2014. In the first half of 2015, the number increased by 21 % and the bed occupancy rate ranged between 93 and 100%.
“We had 1,184 births at AKH in 2014, of which 804 births were natural births and 380 were births by Caesarean section. The number of Qatari births was 204 and non-Qatari births were 980. From the beginning of this year until the end of June, the number of births has reached 799, an increase of 40% compared to last year for the same period,” Dr al-Saqqa said.
Support services such as the ultrasound imaging of the foetus and the monitoring of its development have been expanded to accommodate the increase in the number of visits at AKH’s Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department.