HMC begins vaccinating its housebound patients against COVID-19
Health authorities in Qatar have begun amplifying their efforts to provide the COVID-19 vaccine to the current priority groups under the National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign.
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has been urging citizens and residents 60 years and above to get vaccinated at the earliest possible.
Recently, the country also announced that teachers and school administration staff have been added to the current priority group for the COVID-19 vaccine.
In addition to this, MoPH has also set up a temporary COVID-19 vaccination center at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) to administer vaccines to a larger number of people.
Now, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has announced that its Home Healthcare Service (HHS) has started to administer COVID-19 vaccines to its registered housebound patients.
This program seeks to vaccinate not only adult home healthcare patients but also other adults living with these patients in the same house, who fit the medical criteria for eligibility).
According to a statement by HMC, Chief of the Continuing Care Group at HMC, Mahmoud Al Raisi, commented, "The COVID-19 vaccination outreach campaign is an important step in expanding the vaccination capacity in Qatar. And by vaccinating our patients along with other adult household members, we are enhancing their protection."
National Lead for Healthy Ageing and Chairperson for the Department of Geriatrics and Long-Term Care, Dr Hanadi Al Hamad said the program was developed after feedback from patients and families.
"The feedback we have received especially from our older patients was that they were hesitant to go out of their home to get vaccinated and that they would feel more confident if they could be vaccinated along with other family members," she said.
"As a large portion of our home healthcare patients are older, which is exactly the population group who are among the most vulnerable from COVID-19, we wanted to establish a solution that will provide them with added protection. It was therefore very important to extend the eligibility criteria for this campaign to include both family and other household members who closely interact with our patients," added Dr Al Hamad.
Some 2500 homebound patients are registered as service users under HMC’s Home Healthcare Service. Of these, 75 percent are people aged 60 and above.
Approximately 300 patients are children, who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated with the currently available vaccines. About 2000 homebound patients overall are being considered for the vaccine.
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