The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) is making steady progress on the implementation of the workshops for developing 19 National Clinical Guidelines out of a total of 30. MoPH has already completed 11 of these guidelines.
The development of National Clinical Guidelines is part of the ministry’s efforts to achieve the Goal 2 of the National Health Strategy: “An integrated system of healthcare offering high-quality service”.
All guideline content that is developed will go through senior executive review and sign-off, prior to their publication. They will be available for all healthcare professionals through the MoPH website.
The guidelines which have already been developed are for common cold, tonsillitis, community acquired pneumonia, asthma in children, asthma in adults, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, hypertension, diarrhoea in children, lower urinary tract infection in females and obesity.
The MoPH National Clinical Guidelines team has also conducted numerous “Awareness presentations” at provider sites including Hamad Medical Corporation, Primary Health Care Corporation, Al Ahli Hospital, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Family Medical Clinic, Qatar Petroleum, Aster Medical Group and Al Emadi Hospital with more presentations scheduled in future.
These presentations were focused on the leadership of the health institutions and health practitioners with an insight into the process of National Clinical Guideline and Pathway development.
The attendees were briefed how the introduction of the guidelines is expected to lead to more standardised, evidence-based care with optimised patient outcomes.
Lots of accomplishments have been made through this project so far. The Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety Department has developed a National Clinical Guidelines Team who has, in turn, communicated with key healthcare providers across Qatar to create a stakeholder representative group.
Working cohesively, the Clinical Guidelines Team has received nominations of expert physicians from key stakeholders who will engage in developing the guidelines.
These National Clinical Guideline Development Workshops are approved by Qatar’s Council for Healthcare Practitioners and accredited as Category-2, Self-Directed Learning Activities under the Research and Quality Improvement Continuing Medical Education and Continuing Professional Development activity