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Tribune News Network
Doha
Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Neurosurgery Department performed more than 1,000 neurosurgeries in 2021, which is considered a huge leap in surgical activity in this specialty.
The surgeries included 177 brain surgeries to remove tumours, more than 300 spinal surgeries, as well as other surgical procedures to treat cases with strokes, traumatic brain injuries, cerebrovascular diseases and other neurosurgical conditions.
HMC’s Neurosurgery Department has achieved several successive developments over the past three years in terms of the types and numbers of surgeries it performs every year.
Dr Abdulla Al Ansari, chief medical officer and chairman of Surgery at HMC, said that HMC continues its development journey with many remarkable achievements and milestones reached so far, such as the opening of new facilities and implementing quality improvement plans and programmes to ensure the delivery of best healthcare services to patients and to meet the increasing demand for healthcare services from the rapidly growing population in Qatar.
“Surgical services at HMC meet the best international standards in terms of patient safety and the surgical technology used by our surgeons. HMC is committed to enhancing the surgical infrastructure in all its departments and specialties and to providing innovative services and technologies to enhance surgical capacity and capabilities across all its hospitals, as well as to providing the best and most advanced surgical services available to Qatar’s population,” said Dr Ansari.
He added, “HMC is committed to continuing its efforts to enhance medical performance, introduce the best treatment programmes to better serve its patients and to introduce the latest equipment and technologies and train its staff on the use of these technologies to ensure the delivery of high-quality care to patients. Qatar’s health sector is making every effort to keep up with the latest medical practices and technologies and to continue to provide patient-centred care to its patients.”
Dr Sirajeddin Belkhair, senior consultant and head of the Neurosurgery Department at HMC, said that the strategy of the Neurosurgery Department over the past few years has been focused on achieving several objectives, such as improving the quality of neurosurgical care at HMC and enhancing the confidence of the local community in the quality of treatment provided at HMC so that patients opt to seek neurosurgery services locally instead of seeking treatment abroad.
He added that the objectives of the Neurosurgery Department also include strengthening the neurosurgery training programme to ensure residents and neurosurgeons acquire the highest levels of skills to treat patients who suffer from a variety of conditions and maintain the international accreditation of this training programme, as well as obtaining international accreditation for treatment provided by the Neurosurgery Department to be recognised as a centre of excellence on the national, regional and international levels.
Dr Belkhair, who became head of the Neurosurgery Department at HMC in January 2018, highlighted the department’s success in performing a number of highly-complex surgeries for the first time in Qatar over the past months, including more than 10 brain tumour surgeries performed on awake patients, four brain surgeries for epilepsy with intra-operative electroencephalography brain mapping and a brain bypass surgery on a patient with Moyamoya Disease as part of the Brain Re-Vascularisation Programme, which was introduced three years ago.
HMC is currently the only healthcare provider in the region to offer this surgery, which is a last-resort treatment for patients suffering from Moyamoya disease. All these surgeries demonstrate HMC’s excellence in the delivery of surgical services.
Dr Belkhair attributed the significant increase in the number and complexity of surgeries performed by HMC’s neurosurgeons to the increased confidence of patients, citizens and residents in the quality of surgical and healthcare services they receive at HMC.
This encourages more patients to opt to seek treatment in Qatar where they can receive the best health care while they are with their families and loved ones instead of travelling abroad for treatment.
He said, “The Neurosurgery Department is staffed with five senior consultants, three consultants and nine specialists. We have two operating rooms available round the clock to allow our surgeons to perform surgeries 24/7, including surgeries on weekend days for trauma and stroke patients and for cases with haemorrhage due to aneurysms or vascular anomalies.
“The global reputation that HMC has gained for its world-class neurosurgical services has led it to become a treatment destination for many patients from across the region. We now see patients from neighbouring countries such as Kuwait and Oman travelling to Qatar to undergo brain surgeries.”
Dr Belkhair, who is also the director of Neurosurgery Residency Programme at HMC, said there are currently 15 neurosurgery residents from nine countries enrolled in HMC’s Neurosurgery Residency Programme.
He said, “Our residents are provided with high-quality training to ensure they become world-class neurosurgeons. The seven-year training programme is carried out at Hamad General Hospital (HGH) under supervision of HMC surgeons. After obtaining a Fellowship in Neurosurgery, some of the graduates of this programme travelled to work in hospitals in the United States, Canada and Europe, which demonstrates the high-quality, world-class training they received at HMC. We also offer training to students from Qatar University’s College of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar during their undergraduate years.”
The continued efforts of HMC’s Neurosurgery Department have helped it achieve international accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI). In addition, HMC’s Neurosurgery Residency Programme achieved accreditation from the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education – International (ACGME-I) in July 2021, which demonstrates excellence in the way medical graduates are trained through residency, internship and fellowship programmes.
HMC’s Neurosurgery Residency Programme is the second programme outside of the United States to achieve the ACGME-I accreditation.
“The future vision of HMC’s Neurosurgery Department is focused on introducing the world’s latest surgical practices and technologies at HMC and making them available to patients in Qatar, as well as maintaining and even improving the world-class care services we deliver so that our department becomes a globally recognised centre of excellence in neurosurgery. We also have the ambition of establishing a specialist hospital for neurological disorders in Qatar,” Dr Belkhair said.
Doha
Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Neurosurgery Department performed more than 1,000 neurosurgeries in 2021, which is considered a huge leap in surgical activity in this specialty.
The surgeries included 177 brain surgeries to remove tumours, more than 300 spinal surgeries, as well as other surgical procedures to treat cases with strokes, traumatic brain injuries, cerebrovascular diseases and other neurosurgical conditions.
HMC’s Neurosurgery Department has achieved several successive developments over the past three years in terms of the types and numbers of surgeries it performs every year.
Dr Abdulla Al Ansari, chief medical officer and chairman of Surgery at HMC, said that HMC continues its development journey with many remarkable achievements and milestones reached so far, such as the opening of new facilities and implementing quality improvement plans and programmes to ensure the delivery of best healthcare services to patients and to meet the increasing demand for healthcare services from the rapidly growing population in Qatar.
“Surgical services at HMC meet the best international standards in terms of patient safety and the surgical technology used by our surgeons. HMC is committed to enhancing the surgical infrastructure in all its departments and specialties and to providing innovative services and technologies to enhance surgical capacity and capabilities across all its hospitals, as well as to providing the best and most advanced surgical services available to Qatar’s population,” said Dr Ansari.
He added, “HMC is committed to continuing its efforts to enhance medical performance, introduce the best treatment programmes to better serve its patients and to introduce the latest equipment and technologies and train its staff on the use of these technologies to ensure the delivery of high-quality care to patients. Qatar’s health sector is making every effort to keep up with the latest medical practices and technologies and to continue to provide patient-centred care to its patients.”
Dr Sirajeddin Belkhair, senior consultant and head of the Neurosurgery Department at HMC, said that the strategy of the Neurosurgery Department over the past few years has been focused on achieving several objectives, such as improving the quality of neurosurgical care at HMC and enhancing the confidence of the local community in the quality of treatment provided at HMC so that patients opt to seek neurosurgery services locally instead of seeking treatment abroad.
He added that the objectives of the Neurosurgery Department also include strengthening the neurosurgery training programme to ensure residents and neurosurgeons acquire the highest levels of skills to treat patients who suffer from a variety of conditions and maintain the international accreditation of this training programme, as well as obtaining international accreditation for treatment provided by the Neurosurgery Department to be recognised as a centre of excellence on the national, regional and international levels.
Dr Belkhair, who became head of the Neurosurgery Department at HMC in January 2018, highlighted the department’s success in performing a number of highly-complex surgeries for the first time in Qatar over the past months, including more than 10 brain tumour surgeries performed on awake patients, four brain surgeries for epilepsy with intra-operative electroencephalography brain mapping and a brain bypass surgery on a patient with Moyamoya Disease as part of the Brain Re-Vascularisation Programme, which was introduced three years ago.
HMC is currently the only healthcare provider in the region to offer this surgery, which is a last-resort treatment for patients suffering from Moyamoya disease. All these surgeries demonstrate HMC’s excellence in the delivery of surgical services.
Dr Belkhair attributed the significant increase in the number and complexity of surgeries performed by HMC’s neurosurgeons to the increased confidence of patients, citizens and residents in the quality of surgical and healthcare services they receive at HMC.
This encourages more patients to opt to seek treatment in Qatar where they can receive the best health care while they are with their families and loved ones instead of travelling abroad for treatment.
He said, “The Neurosurgery Department is staffed with five senior consultants, three consultants and nine specialists. We have two operating rooms available round the clock to allow our surgeons to perform surgeries 24/7, including surgeries on weekend days for trauma and stroke patients and for cases with haemorrhage due to aneurysms or vascular anomalies.
“The global reputation that HMC has gained for its world-class neurosurgical services has led it to become a treatment destination for many patients from across the region. We now see patients from neighbouring countries such as Kuwait and Oman travelling to Qatar to undergo brain surgeries.”
Dr Belkhair, who is also the director of Neurosurgery Residency Programme at HMC, said there are currently 15 neurosurgery residents from nine countries enrolled in HMC’s Neurosurgery Residency Programme.
He said, “Our residents are provided with high-quality training to ensure they become world-class neurosurgeons. The seven-year training programme is carried out at Hamad General Hospital (HGH) under supervision of HMC surgeons. After obtaining a Fellowship in Neurosurgery, some of the graduates of this programme travelled to work in hospitals in the United States, Canada and Europe, which demonstrates the high-quality, world-class training they received at HMC. We also offer training to students from Qatar University’s College of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar during their undergraduate years.”
The continued efforts of HMC’s Neurosurgery Department have helped it achieve international accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI). In addition, HMC’s Neurosurgery Residency Programme achieved accreditation from the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education – International (ACGME-I) in July 2021, which demonstrates excellence in the way medical graduates are trained through residency, internship and fellowship programmes.
HMC’s Neurosurgery Residency Programme is the second programme outside of the United States to achieve the ACGME-I accreditation.
“The future vision of HMC’s Neurosurgery Department is focused on introducing the world’s latest surgical practices and technologies at HMC and making them available to patients in Qatar, as well as maintaining and even improving the world-class care services we deliver so that our department becomes a globally recognised centre of excellence in neurosurgery. We also have the ambition of establishing a specialist hospital for neurological disorders in Qatar,” Dr Belkhair said.
