Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) plans on introducing more paediatric services to improve children’s well-being. Recently, HMC marked the opening of the first specialised chronic care and rehabilitation unit, Al Maha, for long-term ventilated children in Qatar.
“We are working with the Home Healthcare Services at HMC to develop a paediatric home care programme. Having a home care programme will allow the children to spend time in their own homes instead of being kept in the unit for a longer period,” said Dr Ibrahim Janahi, senior consultant and head of Paediatric Pulmonology at HMC
“We are also developing a new complex care paediatric service, which involves teams of doctors, nurses and other allied health professionals taking care of patients who have complex diseases. In the complex care service the focus is on coordination of the team taking care of the child, in order to ensure that no part of the overall care provided conflicts with another, the care is doable, and the patient is at the centre of the care.”
HMC recently marked the opening of Al Maha Children’s Unit aimed at providing young patients dependent on ventilation a better quality of life as well as appropriate medical care.
The unit at Rumailah Hospital is an inpatient ward which utilises a multidisciplinary approach to manage the children’s multiple needs, including not only medical care, but also educational, rehabilitation and developmental needs. The unit was developed in partnership with Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Canada.
Al Maha is covered around the clock by nurses, senior paediatric residents, specialists and consultants. The facility is located at a quiet section of Rumailah Hospital to allow a more peaceful setting for the children. A group of 12 ventilator-dependent children were transferred from the paediatric unit of Hamad General Hospital to the unit in November last year.
The development of Al Maha unit started eight-years ago in an effort to provide a more appropriate environment for the children.
“Based on my experience in the United States, these patients are best cared for in high dependency or chronic respiratory units. The objective was to have a multidisciplinary approach and to focus on the children’s multiple needs including educational, rehabilitation and developmental needs, in addition to acute respiratory and non-respiratory care,” said Dr Janahi.
“The limitations of the children’s condition and their environment in the hospital serve as barriers to the development of their potential. The idea was to put them in a place where these potentials are going to be explored and utilised. We have a school based at Rumailah Hospital that some of the children go to. Others who cannot go to the school are given educational activities at the bedside,” he said.
“What we have realised is that these children have ongoing medical issues, and when people are busy with their medical issues they forget about other areas of their development, such as their cognitive and educational abilities, their play, interaction, and their overall quality of life. The aim was to move the children to a unit that can provide all of that,” said Dr Haitham El Bashir, consultant of Paediatrics at HMC.
The Peninsula