Abu Dhabi

A planned Dh596 million centre in Abu Dhabi shows the UAE’s readiness to meet the demand for rehabilitation facilities in the country.

The Abu Dhabi Executive Council has approved an ‘awards for tenders’ to set up the Dh596 million Abu Dhabi Medical Rehabilitation Centre which will contain 149 beds, a senior medical official said here yesterday (Sunday).

There is an increase in private and public rehabilitation centres in UAE, Dr Yousuf Al Nuaimi from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Zayed Military Hospital in Abu Dhabi, said.

He was delivering a keynote address at the Middle East Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Conference as part of the 7th Abu Dhabi Medical Congress and Exhibition that began at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec) yesterday (Sunday).

The three-day event is expected to attract more than 5,000 professionals working in the primary health-care, emergency, patient safety, rehabilitation, and nursing sectors across the region, the organisers said.

Al Nuaimi highlighted the problem of worldwide health-care provider shortages as well as the development of rehabilitation care in UAE in the coming decades. He also emphasised the prevention of future problems while addressing the current functional disability of rehabilitation care in the region.

Speaking about world health-care provider shortage and rehabilitation care in coming decades, a senior doctor said the ageing world population will pose a challenge in the future. In 1804 the world population was just one billion, that grew to over 7 billion in 2012, Dr Vernon Lin, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, said.

There were huge advances in health and safety between 1850 and 1950, he pointed out.

Most of the nations in the world will have the challenge of looking after their ageing population, the doctor said.

Organised by Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, the Abu Dhabi Medical Congress and Exhibition plays host to more than 70 exhibitors from 25 countries featuring leading manufacturers, dealers, service providers and health-care facilities from the region.