“We will open six outpatient clinics and services in June as part of the plan for a phased opening of the Sidra hospital. We will add more facilities for our referred patients in the coming days,” Peter Morris, CEO of Sidra, told Gulf Times.
“We have begun the journey with the opening of the outpatient clinic on May 1. We will launch new clinics and expand services month on month until early 2017. We expect the outpatient clinics to be fully operational by the end of January 2017,” Morris said.
“The clinics that will open in June are Neonatology, Paediatric ENT, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Developmental Paediatrics, Paediatric Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery and Pre-Admission Testing. We are also building up on the clinics and services that are already opened."
There will be more than 40 clinics and services in the Sidra outpatient clinic once it is fully operational.
The CEO of the high-tech hospital highlighted that the clinics, which were opened earlier this month, have generated great interest among the patients. “All our staff are excited and the patients are very happy about the services provided to them. We have done a patient satisfaction survey in the first few weeks and the feedback we have received is excellent or very good.”
The official also noted that more people will be recruited in due course in the outpatient clinic. “At present there are over 1200 staff and we expect it to go up to 1500 or a little more when the outpatient clinic becomes fully operational in early 2017,” he added.
Among the clinics to be opened in June, neonatology will offer services for women with complex and or high-risk pregnancies including those with more than one foetus or where the foetus is smaller or larger than expected for its gestational age as well as several other services.
Paediatric ENT clinic will treat infants, children and adolescents with otorhinolaryngology conditions, complex learning or physical disabilities and congenital malformations of head and neck structures such as the ear, nasal passage, oral cavity and laryngo-tracheal airway and several other services.
The Paediatric Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery clinic will care for children presenting with a wide variety of congenital and acquired conditions of the head, neck, face and jaws and the entire body. This also includes cleft lip and palate, burn reconstruction, and other forms of complex reconstruction.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health services will be available to children and adolescents for conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; depression; generalised anxiety or panic disorders; social phobia; bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders, post traumatic stress disorder and complex autism spectrum disorder with behavioural issues.
Developmental Paediatrics clinic will see referred paediatric and adolescent patients with complex cognitive or behavioural disabilities that are likely to lead to long-term needs.
Finally, the pre-admission testing clinic will be in charge of assessing the paediatric patients to ensure that they are medically fit before receiving sedation or anaesthesia.