By Fazeena Saleem

DOHA: The Ministry of Public Health has launched a national programme to continuously assess and upgrade the skills of all healthcare practitioners to ensure patient safety and quality healthcare.

Doctors nurses and other practitioners who fail to cope with the new requirements face the risk of losing their licences. Qatar currently has a total of about 25000 licensed practitioners.

The National Continuing Medical Education- Continuing Professional Development (CME/CPD) programme will reassure patients and the public that healthcare practitioners upgrade and maintain professional competence for improved service outcomes and quality patient care.

The programme was officially launched on Monday in the presence of the Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari and other senior officials. The event was hosted by the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP) which is the government body established to regulate healthcare practice and medical education in the country.

The CME/CPD Programme brings all healthcare practitioners under a single regulatory authority for regulation and has similar credit requirements for all licensed healthcare practitioners for renewal of their license. All practitioners are being enrolled in the programme starting from Monday.

“This very comprehensive programme which encompasses all healthcare professionals in the country is designed to ensure that their practical and academic qualifications remain relevant and valid. It represents our government’s commitment to instill a culture that encourages lifelong learning and one that will help sustain high standards of professional healthcare” said Dr Al Kuwari.

Under the new programme all healthcare practitioners are required to participate in continues professional learning activities which will help them earn credit points. They must complete and document a minimum of 80 credits every two years at the time of renewal of their licenses. Those who fail to meet the requirement are at risk of losing their licenses eventually.

At present more than 10 healthcare providers and three online sources are approved to provide learning activities for healthcare practitioners said Dr Samar Aboulsoud acting CEO of QCHP and Chair of Qatar CPD Accreditation Committee speaking at press a press conference..

All licensed practitioners are required to report all learning activities in the CPD ePortfolio at the time of their license renewal.

“The licenses of those who do not fulfil the requirements will be suspended which could lead to another problem of losing licenses. There is a rule that if one did not practice for two years the license is not valid and the person has to go back and relearn” said Professor Ibrahim Janahi Chairman of the Permanent Licensing Committee (PLC) at the ministry.

“Starting from March 7 everyone has to be enrolled. However some people need to renew their license next month they wouldn’t be able to get 80 credits in one month. For them we will see if the relevant proportion of the 80 credits is gained” he added.

The development of the National CME/CPD Accreditation system and framework was completed in partnership with the Royal College Canada International.

The program is supported by a robust IT system that has ePortfolios for healthcare practitioners to record their CPD activities CPD Providers to upload their application for CPD Provider or CPD Activity accreditation.Reviewers will be able to review the documents and upload reports following site-visits.

The Peninsula