HMC again urges public not to call 999for non-emergency medical conditions

Published: 15 December 2024

HMC’s ambulance service receives JCI re-accreditation

Qatar News Agency
Doha

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s Ambulance Service has received Joint Commission International (JCI) re-accreditation, highlighting the organization’s unwavering commitment to providing the highest quality, life-saving care to patients in Qatar who need it the most.

JCI accreditation is a globally recognized symbol of quality and safety in healthcare and the evaluation team assessed various aspects of the service, including clinical care, patient safety, quality improvement, and leadership.

Assistant Executive Director of Ambulance Support Services, Ali Saleh Alyafei, noted that this accomplishment is a tes-tament to the dedication and hard work of HMC’s entire team.

The Ambulance Service staff are distributed in various locations across Qatar in ambulances, hubs, emergency de-partments, intensive care units, 999 call centers and even in the sky with the LifeFlight air ambulance paramedics.

Visits to all the various locations including Hamad General Hospital’s helipad and riding along in the ambulances allowed the surveyors to observe the various teams in action, interview staff and review documentation as part of their evaluation.

The JCI surveyors commended the Ambulance Services for a consistently high level of professionalism.
The re-accreditation comes at a time when the Ambulance Service is keen to remind the public to save ambulances for emergencies with the winter period approaching, which typically sees an increase in pressure on healthcare services with seasonal infections as well as cooler weather attracting more people outdoors.

In 2023, the Ambulance Service received just over 295,000 emergency calls to 999 to request an ambulance. In 2024 so far, the life-saving service has exceeded this figure with 331,190 calls in only ten months, from January to October. Reducing the number of 999 calls for non-life-threatening conditions will allow HMC’s Ambulance Service to continue to respond quickly and effectively to the most critical cases.

Every day, the Ambulance Service teams provide life-saving medical care to critically ill patients who have experienced a stroke, heart attack, road traffic accident, severe allergic reaction, seizure, chest pain or are unconscious, for example.

To enable the teams to respond as quickly and effectively as possible to these life-saving cases, HMC is asking members of the public with non-emergency medical conditions not to call 999 and request an ambulance, but rather to make their own way to a relevant health facility for medical treatment.