Qatar celebrates Family Day on April 15 each year, an occasion that aims to highlight the family's role in building the community and promoting social values. The family is considered the fundamental cornerstone in individuals' lives, providing love, support and guidance, which contributes to shaping strong, balanced and active personalities in the pursuit of progress and prosperity.

Health plays a crucial role in fostering family stability and happiness. Good health enables family members to live joyfully and achieve greater productivity, whereas health issues can lead to mental and social stress that negatively affects the quality of family life. Therefore, it is essential to adopt preventive and therapeutic measures that promote individual health, ultimately benefiting the family as a whole. The foremost among these measures is embracing a healthy lifestyle, which includes balanced nutrition, regular physical activity, and avoiding harmful habits such as smoking, alcohol consumption and drug use, while also attaching care to the mental well-being of all family members.

“The Significance of Prevention and Care”

In this context, Dr. Mohamed Amin Al-Otaibi, a Senior family consultant at Leabaib Health Center, stated that Family Day serves as an opportunity to educate the community about the importance of health prevention and healthcare, raise awareness regarding regular check-ups, proper nutrition, and mental health. This occasion can be utilized to promote common healthy habits, such as enjoying healthy meals together or engaging in physical activities, which contribute to enhancing family health and cohesion. Celebrating Family Day goes beyond expressing love and appreciation; it also involves prioritizing the health of its members, as good health is essential for a happy family capable of facing challenges and building a better future for the next generations.

“Primary Healthcare”

Primary healthcare has been demonstrated through global studies and experiences to be the cornerstone of any successful health system. The effectiveness of the system is contingent upon the strength of primary healthcare and the allocation of resources towards it. As the quality of primary healthcare improves, mortality rates decrease and public health indicators enhance; conversely, a decline in primary healthcare or an emphasis on specialized care without adequate support for primary services can lead to adverse outcomes.

In recent years, there have been significant changes in patterns of illness and mortality. Infectious diseases have declined, while non-communicable chronic diseases, which cannot be completely cured, have increased. These conditions necessitate the adoption of healthy lifestyle practices for prevention or to alleviate their complications. Additionally, individuals' expectations from healthcare systems have evolved; they now encompass not only treatment but also prevention and a comprehensive approach to health that includes physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects.

“Family Is the Foundation of Community”

Dr. Al-Otaibi added that based on this understanding, the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) recognizes the importance of the family and its health as a foundation to the well-being of the community. Consequently, PHCC has adopted the family medicine program as one of the key frameworks for delivering preventive and therapeutic services. This program focuses on providing patient-centered services, with the patient being the core of the healthcare process and the most crucial element in achieving the desired health outcomes.

Qatar is globally recognized as a leading country in healthcare, with its primary healthcare system, which embraces family medicine, being a cornerstone of this excellence. PHCC has adopted an ambitious vision derived from the national health strategy, which is: 'To be a leader in enhancing the health and well-being of Qatar's population,' and has implemented the family medicine system as a fundamental approach to achieve this vision.

What is family medicine and what principles does it adhere to? Family medicine is a medical specialty that provides continuous and comprehensive services to individuals, families and communities, based on the best practices grounded in scientific, clinical, mantal and behavioral foundations. It covers all age groups of both genders and addresses various aspects of physical, mental and behavioral health.

“High Quality Services”

Research has demonstrated that implementing a family medicine system in primary healthcare is the most effective approach to delivering high-quality services at a reasonable cost. It contributes to the improvement of health indicators, ensures optimal resource utilization and promotes healthy behaviors due to the ongoing professional relationship between the physician and the patient, thereby providing a sustainable service that is not transient.

The system is based on assigning a family physician to each individual, allowing patients to choose their doctor. Additionally, the physician is supported by a designated team to ensure continuity of care even in the physician's absence. This continuity fosters trust between the doctor and the patient, contributes to accurate diagnosis and effective treatment, and enhances the patient's adherence to medical advice and treatment plans, ultimately leading to better health outcomes.

PHCC’s mission is to deliver person-centered services that are comprehensive, integrated, and coordinated. In this context, the family medicine system aims to provide inclusive therapeutic, preventive and promotional services, focusing on the individual, family and community, while ensuring continuous follow-up by the same physician and coordinating integrated services through an internal and external referral system managed by the family medicine clinic.

“Family Physician System”

To ensure the effectiveness of this system, most services have been integrated under the family physician, supported by an electronic file system and a modern referral system that guarantees precise follow-up. The success of this system requires an efficient appointment mechanism that allows patients to select a suitable time and physician, thereby avoiding prolong waiting times, without negating their right to directly visit the health center in emergencies.

To facilitate communication between patients and physicians, remote consultations via phone or video have been introduced. Additionally, “MyHealth” portal allows patients to access their health records and will enable direct electronic communication with their physicians in the future.

“Physical and Mental Safety”

Dr. Mohamed Al-Otaibi noted that comprehensive and integrated family medicine serves as the cornerstone for enhancing the health of individuals and communities. It is recognized as one of the most successful health models for delivering continuous and impactful care, due to its focus on the patient as the core of all health interventions and on the family as a nurturing and influential environment for both physical and mental well-being. This approach has led PHCC to adopt this system as the basis for its service delivery, ensuring comprehensive and coordinated care built on trust and communication, thereby achieving the highest levels of health and quality of life for all community members.