"The project follows a ‘hub and spokes’ model, and could start earlier than the Filipino hospital, possibly by 2017," said Dr Jose Tiongco, chief executive officer of the Medical Mission Group Hospitals and Health Services Co-operative Philippines (MMGHHSCP).
Tiongco, who is in Qatar with a team of Philippine-based medical experts, said they will meet with Qatari investors, “and are looking at being able to sign memoranda of understanding, including an MoU for the polyclinic.”
The investors, he noted, have already identified “a definite location” for the polyclinic in Doha.
“A hospital provides ‘interventive’ type of care and is needed by only 5% of people in a community. The ‘preventive and maintenance’ type, on the other hand, is needed by up to 95% of people and this is where service is needed and where income is most, but very often this is neglected because the focus is on hospitals.
“So, the Filipino hospital will be the hub but there will be spokes (polyclinics) to more populated areas to avoid congestion of patients and long queues,” Tiongco told Gulf Times on Thursday on the sidelines of the medical team’s courtesy call with Philippine ambassador Wilfredo Santos.
Tiongco, in partnership with the Philippine Business Council-Qatar (PBC-Q), proposed the Filipino hospital project to Qatari investors in October 2015.
“After the investors exhibited support and excitement about the project, they made proposals and that’s how everything started rolling since Dr Tiongco’s first visit to Qatar last year. I think during the initial meeting if we didn’t find anything there, we wouldn’t be pursuing this project today,” said PBC-Q chairman Greg Loayon.
Currently, Loayon said the group is working towards the incorporation of an entity that would be registered in Qatar once it is finalised. The entity, he explained, will function like a membership corporation “such that the members, being stakeholders of the business, will benefit from the services of the hospital.”
For the past three months, the PBC-Q has conducted a series of information campaigns about the project in various locations in Qatar to encourage Filipinos to be part of the entity. He said close to 1,000 OFWs already attended the information sessions and have signified intentions to become members.
PBC-Q adviser Robert Lepon said the Filipino hospital project supports the human development pillar of the Qatar National Vision 2030 as it aspires to provide world-class and quality healthcare services to both citizens and the country’s burgeoning expatriate community.
“We are indebted to the Qatari government for the support it has provided us and they have been very generous to us. By providing quality healthcare through the Filipino hospital, it is also our way of giving back to a country that has been very kind to Filipinos,” he said.
Loayon added: “Aside from providing health services to the Filipino community, it extends to the wider population, and this is a way of supporting Qatar’s vision to provide quality healthcare to the entire country. If you’re looking at the Qatar National Vision 2030, this would be one of those initiatives that support it.”
According to Lepon, there are also plans to bring project to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, “subject to further study and research.”