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United Arab Emirates, Dubai, December 3, 2013: The Primary Healthcare Sector of the Dubai Health Authority recently marked World Quality Day 2013 by organizing a one-day seminar and exhibition.
H.E. Eng. Essa Al Maidoor, Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority inaugurated the event in the presence of senior officials including Dr. Manal Al Taryam, CEO of Primary Healthcare at the DHA. Al Maidoor reiterated the importance of continuously working towards further enhancing customer satisfaction by providing world-class healthcare, promoting the concept of patient-safety and ensuring that all aspects of the patient's needs are taken care of from the time the patient enters the hospital or clinic until he is discharged. He highlighted that customer satisfaction is at the heart of the 2013-2025 strategy and that quality healthcare is a key parameter to achieve this. Dr. Manal Al Taryam discussed the importance of further promoting a culture of patient safety in line with international standards, developments and recommendations in the field. She also highlighted the importance of developing unique and new initiatives that are aimed to enhance patient care. Over the last few months, the Authority has announced several measures that are aimed to provide convenience and quality care to patients and their families. These includes making the Al Barsha and Nad Al Hamar health centre function round-the-clock to provide 24 hours care to patients. The move has helped provide patients with access to healthcare and reduce the pressure of non-urgent medical cases that emergency centres receive. The DHA has also opened emergency departments in a few health centres such as Al Barsha that are capable of handling urgent cases. Emergency cases continue to be seen at the Trauma Centre. Taryam said: “Since the introduction of the 24 hours service in July this year, we have seen a three-fold increase in the number of patients who visited the Nad Al Hamar and the Al Barsha PHCs. Most of the cases were managed at the primary healthcare centres itself and as per statistics the referral rate( ie. No of cases received that were referred to a hospital for treatment) was only one per cent for Nad Al Hamar and two per cent for Al Barsha.” She said in terms of numbers, for Nad Al Hamar this means out of 4549 cases received, 42 cases were referred to the hospital for further treatment and for Al Barsha Health centre, out of 945 cases received, 17 were referred to the hospital.
She added that on average 80 to 120 patients attend the 24 hours clinics per shift, and that there are three shifts per day. An average of five patients are seen per physician per hour.
She added that the introduction of the 24 hour service across PHC's has been a very successful initiative and that the authority aims to expand this to other health centres. In addition to this, within the end of the year, all DHA hospital beds and waiting areas will be equipped with Android Tablets. All DHA primary healthcare centres will also have Android Tablets. During the tour of the exhibition organized by the different sections of the primary healthcare centres to highlight key initiatives, processes and technologies that they have incorporated to improve the quality of care provided Al Maidoor discussed the importance of primary healthcare and said that it is frontline healthcare and the first step of contact for patients, therefore all measures should be taken to provide the highest level of care possible. He also said that by 2025, Dubai will have 40 primary healthcare centres spread across the Emirate of Dubai. At the end of the ceremony, Al Maidoor felicitated the team responsible for incorporating 24 hours care in primary healthcare centres and the community awareness team for the various campaigns and initiatives they have undertaken to raise education about lifestyle diseases and prevention methods.
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