Dubai: The advances in health care were lauded during the celebration of the 41st UAE National Day by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) on November 27, 2012.
Marked by a parade from Rashid Hospital to the DHA headquarters and culminating in activities such as singing, dancing and poetry recitation, the authority took the opportunity to highlight developments in the health sector.
Eisa Al Haj Al Maidour, director general, said that the authority has been working towards several goals from promoting higher education in specialised areas of health care to investment promotion in the private sector, and monitoring health care facilities and professionals in Dubai.
In addition, the DHA has looked into strengthening its primary health centres, medical fitness facilities and developing specialty centres — all three parameters important to provide the people of Dubai with enhanced health care facilities.
This year, the authority launched a smartphone application so users have access to health information at any time, place or platform. The DHA app provides a plethora of services including a list of health services, vaccination schedules, details of visiting doctors, and ability to search for information based on location and specialty.
The DHA’s focus on medical education was also appreciated. Since 2005, more than 86 scholars have completed their post-graduation medical studies abroad and are now practising in the various hospitals and health centres at the DHA. Of the 86 medical professionals, 76 completed their higher education in medical and paramedical fields and 10 completed them in health care administration. Presently the DHA has 26 medical professionals studying abroad.
In terms of data collection, the DHA in partnership with the Dubai Statistics Centre, conducted the first Dubai Household Health Survey in 2009. It was a comprehensive survey of 5,000 households in Dubai that looked into all parameters of health care from the amount a family spends on health to lifestyle and exercise patterns as well as disease prevalence.
The authority aims to conduct the survey every few years and publish the results so both the public and private health sector can benefit from this information and the DHA can base its future policies on concrete health care data.
New projects were highlighted during the celebration. These included the 123-bed multi-specialty Hatta hospital that caters to a population of 40,000 people; three new health centres in Al Mizhar, Nad Al Hamar and soon to be opened one in Al Barsha; and the Dubai Diabetes Centre. In the future, the Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital, a first-of-its-kind facility in the region, will be completed.
