A top official with the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the country’s premier healthcare provider, has said that the increasing number of traffic accidents was making it more expensive to treat the injured.

Dr Hassan Ali Saoud Al Thani, who heads the Trauma, Vascular Surgery and General Surgery Sections at HMC, who spoke to The Peninsula, said that the per night cost of staying at the hospital (without charges of surgery and medicines) ranged from QR5,000 to QR7,000.

“Some injured people stay in the hospital for a year or more. In such cases, the cost of providing healthcare crosses QR2mn,” he said.

He said that this was the expense of just a bed at HMC while advanced procedures, implants and replacement of bodily parts were extra. If the injured patient remained in Intensive Care, that would double the costs.

“The per night cost at Intensive Care starts from QR10,000 and this is a minimum. The injured patients may spend three to four months at Intensive Care which costs QR1.5mn.”

The efficiency of ambulance services has improved, with the average time taken — from reporting of the accident until the injured from outside Doha reaches HMC — standing at less than 15 minutes.

The official said that according to available data, most accident victims were aged 30 or less and died at the scene of the accident itself.