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Qatar Qatar -- Health
Before oil was discovered, health care consisted of
traditional medicine: barbers performed circumcisions and
other
minor procedures, and herbalists dispensed natural
remedies. A
one-doctor "hospital" opened in Doha in 1945. In 1951
Shaykh Ali
ibn Abd Allah agreed to a British doctor and a small
staff. The
first state hospital, Rumailah Hospital, opened in 1959
with 170
beds. A 165-bed maternity hospital was established in
1965. The
health budget was abused by Shaykh Ahmad ibn Ali's son and
minister of health, Abd al Aziz ibn Ahmad Al Thani. He
apparently
sent thousands of Ahmad ibn Ali's supporters abroad for
luxurious
and, in many cases, unnecessary health care in the 1960s.
The development of social services, including health
care,
accelerated after the accession in 1972 of Shaykh Khalifa
ibn
Hamad, who dramatically altered the allocation of oil
revenues.
This included transferring the ruler's 25 percent of oil
revenues
to the state budget. But the health budget suffered
because of
the downturns in oil revenues. In 1986, for example, there
were
cuts of 10 percent in clinic staff.
There are three hospitals in Doha, with a total of
about
1,100 beds. Hamad General Hospital, which opened in 1982,
has
modern facilities for emergency care, cardiovascular
surgery,
tomography, nuclear medicine, and plastic surgery.
Rumailah
Hospital, once the only general hospital, has become a
center for
geriatric, psychiatric, and rehabilitative care. It also
has
dental and dermatology departments and a burn unit. The
Women's
Hospital has 314 beds. In addition, dozens of clinics
throughout
the country ensure accessible primary care to most of the
population. For example, 90 percent of births in the late
1980s
were attended by a health professional. There are 752
government
physicians and many other support staff. In the 1980s,
several
private clinics also opened in the capital.
Life expectancy at birth in 1986 was 65.2 years for
males and
67.6 years for females. The infant mortality rate in 1989
was
thirty-one per 1,000 live births. In the 1988-89 period,
81
percent of one- to three-year-olds were immunized. Major
causes
of death in 1989 were diseases of the circulatory system,
injuries and poisonings, tumors, and perinatal conditions.
Data as of January 1993
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