WWRC, the Women’s Wellness Research Centre, is one of the busiest Obstetric centers in the world with close to 19,000 deliveries per year. Located in the Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical city , WWRC is a tertiary referral hospital catering to the care of the women and the newborn in the state of Qatar since 2019. The Obstetric anesthesia section at WWRC is headed by Dr. Santhosh Gopalakrishnan, senior consultant and lead for the obstetric anesthesia services across HMC. There is a total of 32 anesthetists, along with four obstetric anesthesia fellows presently working in the obstetric anesthesia section, WWRC, and are responsible for the hectic and demanding operative services in both the emergency and elective theatres for both obstetric and gynecological patients. Our work as a team is supported by a very efficient team of anesthesia technologists and technicians who are skilled in running the technical aspects of our services.
There are seven operating rooms (in level 2 & 3), of which two are located in level 2 for emergency cesarean sections or other obstetric related emergency procedures. Level 3 OT complex (5 rooms) caters to the elective obstetric list and gynecological surgeries, including robotic surgeries. The team also covers the labor epidural services besides the anesthesia-related care of patients in the very busy labor room on level 2, which has a total of 22 beds. Other services covered and offered by the obstetric anesthesia team includes the code blue RRT cover, round the clock emergency services, the PAC clinic, ward calls including acute pain services, care of high-risk patients in the HDU along with the SICU team, sedation services for patients going for radiological procedures at WWRC. The ICU team backs the anesthesia services at ACC for the care of critically ill patients requiring ICU care. The team is also involved in MDT meetings for high-risk patients. As a significant obstetric referral center in the country, we do very frequently patients with abnormal placentations who tend to bleed over 3 liters along with other high-risk patients with preeclampsia, cardiac disease patients in the obstetric population. The WWRC anesthesia services are supported by a well-equipped blood bank, which is located in QRI. Cell salvage, ROTEM, level 1 infusion system, Edwards cardiac output monitor are all part of clinical usage in our practice here at WWRC. Besides our clinical services, the anesthesia team at WWRC is actively involved in academics, research, and quality projects.
The obstetric fellowship program has been awarded as the best fellowship program of the department in the past year. The faculty also train the residents of the department at WWRC as they rotate here with us during their training. Besides this, our team here is involved in doing audits, quality projects, organizing M&M’s once a month (at WWRC), didactic teaching, and lectures. Our faculty are also involved in the ACGMEI related committees, formulating corporate guidelines, poster presentations at conferences and organization of conferences, perinatology seminars, and simulations. Research is actively pursued here at anesthesia in WWRC. The research study “Relative potency of noradrenaline vs. phenylephrine infusions in the prevention of hypotension after spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery” was a landmark study that was done by Dr. Mitko, Dr. Fatima, Dr. Amber, Dr. Enas, and Dr. Fouzia and won the second place, for the Gertie Marx Research Competition (presented by Dr. Fatima) at the SOAP conference, Phoenix, Arizona in 2019. The study was also shortlisted among 12 other papers from 400 papers for the Felicity Reynolds award at the OAA conference in 2019.
The obstetric anesthesia team here at WWRC takes pride and joy in providing our patients with excellent care in keeping with the international standards with utmost dedication in line with the most recent clinical evidence. We continue to strive to give the very best quality of service in clinical care.
