Qatar plans to set up a new authority on food safety

DOHA May 19th 2013: Qatar hopes to set up a Food Safety Authority and enforce a law dedicated exclusively to ensuring that all locally produced and imported foodstuff meet strict health standards and are safe for consumption.

The government has given the go-ahead to form the above-said authority and the Supreme Council of Health (SCH), regulator of public and private healthcare facilities in the country, has the draft of the proposed food safety law ready.

The draft, as well as the planned organisational structure of the proposed food safety authority, is to be submitted by the SCH for the necessary approvals from the higher-ups anytime this year.

The SCH’s annual report for 2012 released recently says that the Council has developed new policies for food safety across different government sectors and received the green signal from the ministry to set up a food safety authority. Currently, a national level joint food monitoring committee operates under the SCH which has members from different government ministries and agencies, including the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning.

Among a string of other ambitious plans of the SCH this year is to begin training courses for general practitioners in the area of occupational health.

The SCH is coordinating with the Ministry of Labor to finalise a strategy to ensure occupational health and safety for low-income single workers whose influx has been increasing due to a slew of mega development projects being launched for the 2022 FIFA

World Cup. Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), for its part, is going on a recruitment spree this year and hopes to hire as many as 1,700 nurses, among other medical staff, including physicians and allied professionals.

In 2011 and 2012, HMC recruited 160 physicians, 894 nursing and 866 allied health professionals, according to the annual report. The corporation that runs primary healthcare centers (PHCs) has projected that by this year-end clinical staff at the PHCs will grow by a considerable 82 percent.

The SCH, HMC and the PHCs had a combined workforce of 14,280 last year, up from 12,360 in 2011, data given by the annual report suggest.

The SCH, according to the report, is conducting a study for an urgent paediatric care centre and a PHC in Al Sadd area of Doha. The design phase for the 10,000sqm plot of land will be conducted this year.

The country’s public healthcare budget has witnessed a rapid 58.23 percent increase over the past five years. From QR5.78bn in the fiscal year 2009-10, it jumped to QR9.14bn (approved budget) this financial year (2012-13).

This year, the SCH expects to set up a National Health Insurance Company (NHIC) that would be the supervisory body for the compulsory health scheme being launched by the government.