Ministry of Public Health recently organized a workshop to raise awareness of the policy of informed consent for encouraging patients to make decisions about treatment options among health care providers and health practitioners, based on a bill of rights and responsibilities of the patient.
The workshop, which lasted three days organized by the department of Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety in cooperation with the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP) at the Ministry of Public Health as a platform to exchange experiences and benefit from health care providers and health practitioners through exchange of information and taking into account the proposals before them as partners in the change for the benefit of patients.
More than 150 health service providers participated in the workshop from different specialties in the private sector, and managers of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Public Health, and the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP), Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), in addition to the Sidra Medical and Research Center, Aspetar hospital and Qatar Petroleum.
The workshop included presentations about the importance of informed consent, which is one of the rights enshrined in the charter of rights and duties enforced in the State of Qatar since 2015 and adopted by the standing committee of the licenses. Workshop also highlight the statistics issued by the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP) on complaints received concerning the failure to obtain the consent of the patient when providing medical care to him, in addition to displaying samples of approvals that are used by some health care facilities in the state.
The representatives of the department of Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety at the Ministry of Public Health showed a draft of informed consent policies that opened the doors of discussion and fruitful interaction among audience, where they were taking their views and suggestions on the draft, to identify the challenges and obstacles that they face, through a questionnaire which was distributed at the end of the workshop, which will contribute effectively to the finalization of the policy of informed consent, which is currently being prepared.