Ali Darwish, Assistant Executive Director, Ambulance Services HMC, during the official opening of Sealine Medical Clinic, located in the Sealine area, yesterday. Pics: Qassim Rahmatullah / The Peninsula
With the winter camping season starting, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) yesterday officially opened its eighth annual Sealine Medical Clinic, to provide specifically emergency medical services for the people visiting the area.
The clinic operated during the weekend is equipped with medical equipment and medication to treat simple injuries and emergency cases, while critical trauma cases will be referred to hospital by ambulance or LifeFlight helicopters. It is staffed with a physician and two nurses 24 hours a day. The Ambulance Service ensures 24-hour coverage of the area by providing ambulances and paramedics throughout.
A helipad is been built next to the clinic to facilitate transportation of seriously injured patients to hospital on helicopters, called LifeFlight. Also an additional three helipads are built in the Inland Sea area.
“We will receive patients with minor health concerns, as well as emergency cases. The main aim of this clinic is to provide first aid or in critical cases to stabilize the patient before transferring to a hospital for further treatment,” Dr Hamid Ghareeb, Consultant at HMC’s Medical Administration Department and Medical Supervisor of the Sealine Medical Clinic, told The Peninsula.
“The clinic will operate every weekend during the camping season, starting from Thursday at 3pm and remain open until 5pm on Sunday. It will be available for approximately 25 weeks until the end of April,” he added.
In addition to its regular round-the-clock emergency coverage in the Sealine area, the Ambulance Service has added two ambulances and two 4x4 emergency vehicles which will be permanently stationed in the area. Ali Darwish, Assistant Executive Director of the Ambulance Service said the Ambulance Service is ready to transport emergency cases from the sand dune area to the clinic or to the helicopter landing area, as required. During weekends, the number of ambulances onsite will be increased.
“Every year we cover the Sealine area during the camping season starting from the bridge of the Mesaieed city until the last point of the Inland Sea with our regular ambulances, 4x4 emergency vehicles and the life flight. This year we are creating three more helipads for landing inside Inland Sea in order to airlift patients from the area easily. Soon we will display signs indicating the life flight ambulance service landing sites and requesting people to keep a distance,” said Ali Darwish.
He also said that on Fridays the number of regular ambulances will be increased from eight to 12 and 4x4 emergency vehicles from three to five, as its considered the peak time that accidents and other medical emergencies occur in the area. This is the eighth consecutive year that the HMC is operating the clinic, which began receiving patients last weekend.
The ceremony to officially open the clinic was attended by Ali Abdullah Al Khater, Chief Communications Officer at HMC and Chair of the Healthcare Communications Committee, and Saleh Hasan Al Kuwari, Director of the Natural Reserve Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. A number of senior leaders and administrators from HMC attended the event.
Al Khater, who is also Project Manager for the Sealine Medical Center, said HMC operates the clinic in the Sealine area each year to ensure medical services, and specifically emergency medical services, are available for residents during the busy camping season.
