Facilities such as HMC’s Ambulance Service at the Sealine Medical Center. Pic: Qassim Rahmatullah / The Peninsula
With the beginning of the camping season, campers and visitors to the Sealine, Khor Al Adaid (Inland Sea), and surrounding areas are urged to take the necessary precautions and keep safe, while enjoying in the sea and dunes.
As half of the cases seen at the annual Sealine Medical Center operated by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) are due to trauma, visitors are advised to keep safe. “At least 50 percent of the cases received at the clinic are due to trauma, which range from minor to major. Some come with severe injures due to SUV and terrain vehicle (ATV) accidents in the dunes,” Dr Hamid Ghareeb, Consultant at HMC’s Medical Administration Department and Medical Supervisor of the Sealine Medical Clinic told The Peninsula.
“People must not exceed the limit which can risk their safety. Parents should not allow children ride ATV vehicles alone. Also patients with chronic diseases should take precautions and bring their medicines,” he added.
The Centre operates during weekends and opens each Thursday at 3pm and remains open until Saturday at 5pm. The services will be available until the end of April 2018 when the camping season closes. “It’s an emergency medical centre. We provide emergency services and first aid. We make the patient stable by providing with life saving management in critical cases and send in the ambulance to hospitals for actual treatment,” said Dr Ghareeb.
“Although we are assigned for emergency and critical cases, we don’t turn away any patient. Because we are away from health centres and hospitals we treat anyone coming with any condition and relieve the patient from pain. But we have only selective medicines in limited quantity to treat certain illnesses,” he added.
Clinic is supported by HMC’s Ambulance Service, providing campers with round-the-clock access to a team of paramedics, well-equipped ambulance vehicles and LifeFlight . The clinic also features a helicopter landing area to transfer patients from the beach to the clinic, and to transfer acute cases to hospital.
“We have mostly trauma cases, and less medical emergencies. So there is a need for people pay more attention to safety,” said Ali Darwish, Assistant Executive Director, Ambulance Service at HMC.
The cases seen at the clinic are divided as mild, moderate and severe. Common caught, cold, simple stomach problems are considered as mild cases, while burns, fracture, asthma, renal colic, are seen moderate cases, trauma and conditions such as chest pain are categorised as severe cases.
Ali Abdullah Al Khater, Chief Communications Officer at HMC and Chair of the Healthcare Communications Committee during the opening of this year’s clinic urged campers and other visitors to the area to follow safety and security procedures and to take the necessary precautions when enjoying recreational activities.
While, the clinic during the 2016/2017 season received a total of 713 patients, which included 451 Qataris and 262 expatriates. Twenty-seven patients were transferred to the Emergency Department at Hamad General Hospital by ambulance.
The clinic treated 573 people suffering from a range of ailments such as fever, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, coughs and colds while an additional 135 people were treated for wounds, burns, colds, stomach problems and asthma. Five accident and bone fracture patients were also treated.
