About 25,000 healthcare practitioners working in Qatar have been brought under the National Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development (CME/CPD) programme.
“All doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff will be enrolled,” said Dr Samar Aboulsoud, acting CEO, Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP) and chair of Qatar CPD Accreditation Committee.
“This will include the practitioners of Complementary Medicine too,” she explained on the sidelines of the launch of the CME/CPD programme on Monday. QCHP launched the CME/CPD programme on Monday at a ceremony attended by HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari and a number of other senior government officials.
“If any institution wants to be CPD  provider, there are a number of criteria to be fulfilled,” Dr Aboulsoud explained.  There are three cycles for applying for this programme and the next one starts in April and we expect several institutions to apply for the status. The process depends on the readiness of the provider.
The approval process is expected to take four to six months. “After a site visit of the institution concerned, the accreditation committee will review the application and the facilities. If  all the requirements are met, the accreditation will be granted for five years. In the event of a partial fulfilment of the requirements, the accreditation term will be three years.”
At present there are 10 institutions and three online providers in the country with the CPD provider status.
Prof Ibrahim Ahmed Janahi, chairman, Permanent Licensing Committee, Ministry of Public Health, and board member, QCHP said that the practitioners have to comply with the regulations of CME/CPD to practise in the country.
“If any  practitioner does not complete the criteria of 80 credit points within one cycle of two years, their license will be put on hold. Initially we will warn them but later they will have to fulfil all the credit points to continue practising in the country.”
According to Prof Janahi, preferably the employer will have to bear the cost of the programme or make arrangements to provide it at the minimum cost.
Prof Janahi pointed out that the programme came into force from March 7.
“Those who have to renew their license over the next few months, will not be able to fulfil all the criteria. However, a proportion of the criteria has to be met according to the time of the renewal. After two years, everyone has to complete the process according to the regulations,” he added.