The General Secretariat of the Arab League awarded Managing Director (MD) of Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) Dr. Mariam Ali Abdulmalik, the ‘Excellence Award for Arab Women’ in its first session, in recognition of her role in confronting the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as this year’s award has been allocated to women working in the field of medicine in appreciation of their efforts in the health sector.
Dr. Mariam heads the tactical leadership team for health services in the community, which consists of a number of key partners, in addition to clinical and operational leaders from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), PHCC, and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) - considering that they are responsible for leading the planning and implementation of quarantine/isolation facilities in the country.
These institutions are also responsible for planning and managing the capacity of the isolation facilities, as well as preparing policies and procedures related to sanitary isolation practices and ensuring their compatibility with the services of the sector on a larger scale.
The healthcare services provided by PHCC are an essential part of the planning and response process for the emergency measure, to ensure a consistent and integrated approach by the concerned authorities in the country in case of any emergency, to ensure an immediate, effective and optimal response to major emergencies.
In addition to the rapid and immediate measures taken to ensure business continuity and the sustainability of basic services during the coronavirus pandemic, the Corporation launched a package of distance services, that reduce direct contact between patients and service providers, which - in turn, should reduce the chances of spreading the virus.
The distance services included telephone and video counselling services, the inauguration of the community call center and home delivery of medicines, in the context of taking advantage of the latest technology tools and harnessing them to confront the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as provide more innovative and advanced health solutions to meet the needs of patients.
In cooperation with MOPH and HMC, PHCC is at the forefront of institutions that provide COVID-19-examination services, follow-up and direct COVID-19 cases through their centers that have been designated for this purpose, in addition the vehicle-examination service in 14 centers, which contributed to the successful implementation of the national immunization program against coronavirus.
These services have been provided within the framework of expanding the national program for vaccination against the virus, as the center was able to vaccinate more than 650,000 people during its operation period.