Qatar opens field hospital in Industrial Area

Qatar has opened a 200-bed general field hospital at the Industrial Area which will be dedicated to receiving all patients through the emergency department, outpatient clinics, and short stay with a section to allocated to receiving the coronavirus (COVID-19) suspected cases.

The facility which can attend to 2,000 to 3,000 patients a day is meant to ease the pressure on the health care system in the country and help the countrywide efforts to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.

The field hospital run by the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) will start providing its services to the residents of the Industrial Area as of Tuesday after completing its construction in less than four weeks.

The medical director of the field hospital in the Industrial Area and HMC's Emergency Medicine Consultant Dr. Rahma Salim said the hospital receives both critical and normal cases, in addition to providing diagnostic services for suspected cases of coronavirus.

In remarks to reporters after a tour for the media personnel in the hospital, Emergency Medicine Consultant at HMC Dr. Khalid Abdulnoor said that the field hospital was built on 5,000 square meters and it is not only dedicated to receiving COVID-19 suspected cases but also receives all emergencies, short stay, and outpatient clinics.

He explained that part of the hospital was allocated to receive COVID-19 suspected cases after the case passed on the emergency department and evaluated, where a smear is taken of the suspected case and the sample is sent to the HMC laboratories.

Dr. Khalid Abdulnoor added that the suspected case is kept in the COVID unit specialized for these cases with a 90-bed capacity in the field hospital until the results of the examination appear within 12 to 24 hours.