HGH Emergency Department receives 403 cases, PECs register 776 paediatric cases
THE Hamad General Hospital (HGH) Emergency Department (ED) saw 403 cases on Saturday, the third day of Eid Al-Fitr celebrations, which is a lower number compared to the previous years. Eleven of the cases were related to road traffic accidents (RTAs) while 37 comprised abdominal pains.
On Friday, the number of patients registered at the HGH ED from 6am to 6pm was 413 while 328 were recorded on Thursday, the first day of Eid.
Dr Abdulnasir Howaidi, senior consultant at Emergency Department and member of the Expert Panel at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), said: “The number of cases seen at the Emergency Department has reduced in comparison to previous years. This is due to the awareness created among the public about healthy eating habits, safety measures and COVID-19 restrictions.”
However, Dr Howaidi said that they had noticed an average of 10 road accidents on each day of Eid.
“Though there is no death reported, being injured is not good. Even the damage caused to vehicles costs a lot for the person involved in the accident. Therefore, we urge the public to follow all safety measures while driving,” he said.
Dr Mohamed Al Amri, acting chairman of paediatrics and director of Paediatric Centres, said that the Paediatric Emergency Centres (PECs) across the country received a total of 776 cases and only three of them were admitted to Hamad. These include those seen at PEC Al Sadd, PEC Al Rayaan, PEC Airport, PEC Al Shamal and PEC Al Daayen.
“All the cases were minor and only three patients were admitted at Hamad because of fever just to complete their antibiotics there. Other cases included fever, gastroenteritis, otitis media, larynx pharyngitis and upper respiratory. However, there were no Paediatric Intensive Care Unit admission as there were no serious conditions,” he said.
The Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) Ambulance Service on the other hand received 739 calls within 24 hours from 5pm on Friday to 5pm Saturday. Among the calls, 597 were medical related while 117 were trauma and RTA. Two cases were evacuated by air.
Explaining why the calls were more on Saturday compared to the first day of Eid, Assistant Executive Director of Ambulance Service Ali Darwish said, “The possibility is because it is the weekend. People went out.”
Between 5pm on Thursday and 5pm on Friday, the Ambulance Service received 721 calls while it received 671 calls between 5pm on Wednesday and 5pm on Thursday.
According to Darwish, people called the Ambulance Service (999) generally for light to moderate cases.
“We didn’t have any serious incident. There were cases of geriatric, regular weakness, allergic reaction, and abdominal pains,” he said.
He said cases that were evacuated by air were outside Doha from the North, South and West because this is the purpose of Lifeflight.
On the first day of Eid, three cases were evacuated by air and the same number on the second day of Eid.