Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) and Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have signed the contracts of the 9th batch of Palestinian physicians covered by the Amiri Medical Scholarship programme for the academic year 2020-2021.
Ten physicians received scholarships for 4-5 years of training at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), which will be certified by the Arab Board of Health Specialisations (ABHS) in the following specialties:
Gaza physicians: orthopaedics (specialty: spine surgery), internal medicine (specialty: geriatrics), obstetrics and gynaecology (specialty: maternal medicine), and general surgery (specialty: hepatobiliary surgery).
West Bank physicians: internal medicine (specialties: infectious diseases – nephrology – MICU – rheumatology), cardiothoracic surgery, and anaesthesia and intensive care (specialty: regional anaesthesia).
Once all travel procedures are done, the grantees will come to Doha, sending the overall number of beneficiaries from this programme since its inception in 2003 to 82 physicians, in addition to 26 physicians who studied for specialisation in Jordan.
The signing ceremony was attended by Dr Khaled Gouda, director-general of PRCS; Dr Haytham al-Hassan, member of the programme’s advisory committee in the West Bank; and Zeina Walid Hamoud, representative of QRCS in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
This programme is part of QRCS’ strategy to build the capacity of Palestine’s specialist medical professionals in many fields, in light of the lack of well-trained medical workforce.
A main requirement of the scholarship is that each physician is obliged to return to work at a Palestinian health institution for at least double the duration of study under the programme.
The physicians benefiting from the programme said their ultimate goal was to achieve their academic ambitions, help to improve the resources of Palestinian hospitals, and serve their people by supporting medical services.
Regarding the positive outcomes of the programme over the past years, Dr Gouda explained that the physicians who returned from Qatar made a big difference in the health services provided under the Palestinian health sector.
According to Dr Gouda, this remarkable success is a good reason for continuing to implement this significant programme, which is so important for the Palestinians.
He valued the efforts by Qatar, HMC, and QRCS to help the people of Palestine, advising the new physicians to represent their country well and be good examples for others.
Dr al-Hassan said all the three partners sought to sustain and expand the programme, as well as to increase the number of beneficiaries in medical subspecialties, as a great contribution to the health sector of Palestine.
On the other hand, he added, the physicians given the scholarships, based on a standard selection process that met the requirements of HMC, are expected to study hard and be responsible to their profession, country, and health facilities.
“Having been launched in 2003, the Specialist Medical Scholarship Programme is a major joint activity of QRCS, HMC, and PRCS. It helps many Palestinian young physicians and medical institutions to enhance their capacity and staff with a high caliber of specialists in a wide range of much-needed fields,” Hamoud said.
