25-9-2019
Qatar’s healthcare spending is among the highest in the Middle East, with QR22.7 billion ($6.2 billion) invested in healthcare in 2018 with a 4 percent growth compared to the previous year, Qatar Chamber (QC) Board Member Ibtihaj al Ahmadani has said.
Addressing the Arab-German Health Forum in Berlin recently, Ahmadani said, “Qatar has been ranked fifth best in the world and the first in the Middle East, according to Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank which measures improved life expectancy, better health outcomes, and investment in health infrastructure.”
Ahmadani said Qatar’s health system has seen great strides over the past years regarding the number of medical facilities and students as well as the spending on health sector by the government.
She also said that students of medicine in Qatar study at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar which graduated 384 doctors since its establishment in 2001 and at the College of Medicine at Qatar University which will graduate its first batch of doctors in 2021.
She noted that the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP) is a non-profit government body that aims to work on improving quality of healthcare in cooperation with all educational and academic institutions and different medical authorities to organise training courses for all healthcare practitioners to be qualified for their specialisations.
“Within the past two years, Qatar has allocated huge investments on the health sector by providing more than 1,100 beds and opening four new health centres,” she added.
Ahmadani represented QC in the forum accompanied by QC Director-General Saleh bin Hamad al Sharqi.
The event which is organised by the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry saw the participation of around 300 experts and decision-makers from business, politics and science to mutually address the most pressing issues facing medicine and healthcare in the coming decade.
The forum represented a major information and networking platform to establish and strengthen long-lasting Arab-German business relationships in the healthcare sector.
The event was attended by Germany’s State Secretary for Health and Care Martin Matz, Chairman of Jordan Chamber of Commerce Nael al Kabariti, Secretary General of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry Abdul Aziz Al Mukhlafi, Ambassador of Lebanon to Germany and Dean of Arabic Diplomatic at Germany Dr Mostafa Adeeb as well as a crowd of businessmen and officials of the Arab and German health sector.
The forum aims to promote and develop the promising collaboration between Arab and German business partners in the health sector because of the increasing demand for modern standards and efficient solutions which opens up promising fields of activity for German companies and offers the possibility of further cooperation between Arab countries and Germany by taking advantage of German technology and expertise.
