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Catherine W Gichuki
Doha
THE Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) is planning to launch a comprehensive medical screening programme in health centres next year, according to an official.
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the Qatar Diabetes Leadership Forum in Doha on Monday, PHCC Director of Operations Dr Samya Ahmad al Abdulla said that besides diabetes, the programme will also include illnesses like hypertension, cholesterol, thyroid disease, cancer and mental health condition.
"This is a pilot programme and will be introduced in one or two health centres as a test case. If it is successful, we will introduce it in other health centres," Dr Samya said, adding:"We hope that we can screen everybody."
She added that it is still under discussion whether they would select patients for the screening.
A diabetes-only programme of similar kind is currently operational at Al Wakra Health Centre's Smart Clinic. Dr Samya said that at the Smart Clinic, people with risk factors such as hypertension, family history, overweight, obese and smokers were invited to do the screening because they are more prone to diabetes than others.
Dr Samya further said that the Al Wakra Health Centre has around 10,000 active Qatari patients. Of the 10,000 patients, they invited around 3,343 with risk factors.
According to her, 1,101 of the 3,343 patients came to check their haemoglobin a1c and 62 percent were found to be normal which represented 688 patients. Furthermore, 365 were found to be pre-diabetic (representing 33%) and 55 were found to be diabetic (5%).
"These (the above cases) were recorded between January and August, 2016. The screening was only for Qatari patients and later on it is likely to be for non-Qataris as well. So, the eventual comprehensive programme will be bigger than the one which is currently in service at the Al Wakra smart clinic."
Dr Samya also said that patients who were found to be diabetic during their tests at the Smart Clinic were referred to the Hamad Medical Corporation.
