Doha, 30 September, 2020: As part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) activities to mark International Day of Older Persons, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) will today participate in a high-level international meeting arranged by the office of the WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, to discuss the healthcare challenges and needs of older adults in a public health context. Dr. Hanadi Al Hamad, National Lead for Healthy Ageing and Medical Director of Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Rumailah Hospital and Qatar Rehabilitation Institute (QRI), will represent HMC in the meeting.
“Our close collaboration with the WHO, in particular their Department of Ageing and Life Course, has resulted in regular joint initiatives, including the development of the WHO Decade for Healthy Ageing action plan (2020 – 2030). I am honored to be part of the WHO virtual meeting and to have the opportunity to share the progress that Qatar’s healthcare sector has made in addressing the needs of our older persons. Our commitment is demonstrated through Qatar’s National Health Strategy 2018 – 2022, which identifies healthy ageing as one of the key priority groups and aims to create the right conditions for older people to increase their active life years, stay well and live at home wherever possible,” said Dr. Al Hamad.
In the last 50 years, the life expectancy of citizens in Qatar has risen by 15 percent to around 80 years. Although overall the country has a relatively young demographic, as of 2019, nearly 70,000 people were aged 60 and above, and this number is set to rise in the future, adding to the growing need for a national approach to promote healthy ageing.
“In recent years we have transformed our specialist services for older people to ensure this important population group receives the highest standard of care possible. We have expanded capacity and service provision through the development of our Enaya long-term care facilities and the opening of the Daam Specialized Care Center, while also maximizing the use of our homecare services to offer more care to older people outside the hospital setting,” added Dr. Al Hamad.
“I would like to highlight the measures put in place across the healthcare sector to protect the elderly as part of our overall COVID-19 strategy. We understood very early on that older people are most vulnerable to severe complications of the virus and we immediately put in place a range of measures to protect them. These efforts have been central to Qatar achieving one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world,” explained Dr. Al Hamad.
The emergence of COVID-19 and the higher risks to older people led to a change in how Qatar’s healthcare sector delivers services: a wide range of services and medical consultations were offered virtually or via telephone; experts in geriatric medicine offered advice via the Urgent Care Helpline; an Elderly Telephone Reassurance Service was introduced, where an experienced team makes regular telephone calls to elderly citizens and residents to check on their general health and wellbeing and offer advice on how to stay safe; and an Elderly Pharmacy Medication Delivery Service facilitated the distribution of important medicines for older people.
“Our health system’s ability to adapt has been one of our greatest assets throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has forced us to change many aspects of how we deliver services and how our elderly care teams have risen to the challenge, implementing new and innovative ways to safely deliver services, has been truly remarkable,” said Dr. Al Hamad.
