Bachelors call for better service at walk-in clinic

Complaints regarding the run-down condition, waiting period, and rude behaviour of staff at the lone clinic for bachelors in Doha are mounting.

Patients complain that the facility, the ‘Walk-in Clinic’ of the Primary Health Care Department at the Ministry of Public Health in Freej Abdul Aziz, is choked with long lines of low-income workers, some of whom are forced to wait for their turn out under the sun.

All other primary healthcare centres in Doha are designated for families and single women. Bachelors who either obtain a health card (QR100 annually) or pay QR30 for each consultation, are not allowed inside these centres.

Well-placed executive bachelors are usually provided medical insurance by their companies or prefer to go to private clinics.

“This is my fourth visit here and I came in at 2.30pm just to get in line, and got ticket number 41. My turn will come in two hours,” said a patient at the Walk-in Clinic yesterday. For the evening session, the clinic officially opens at 3.

When this reporter visited the clinic at 3.14pm, he found that the standard 50 tickets had already been handed out while at least over 50 patients – mostly labourers – were waiting for their turn.

At the dispensary, at least two dozen patients were found waiting. Said another hapless patient: “I was here two weeks ago and the doctor prescribed three months’ worth of medicine for my ailing kidneys. I paid QR40 (subsidised rate by the government) for the medicine and proceeded to the pick-up window only to be handed out a week’s supply.”

“The pharmacist claimed that’s all they have in stock and I couldn’t get a refund on my money. The system does not allow that,” he added.

Upon inquiry, a staff member suggested that the patient return the next day “possibly at 6am” to beat the rush. The clinic officially opens at 7am.

Patients said some doctors did not even lift their heads to look at them and would hand over the prescription even as they explained their physical condition. There are two doctors on the weekends while four to five are present on weekdays, according to the staff.

Article 109 of Qatari Labour Law says a worker sustaining work injury shall be entitled to medical treatment appropriate to his condition “at the cost of the employer” and receive his “full wage during the treatment period”.