Volunteer UAE doctors treat 7,000 flood-hit people in Pakistan
Emirates Field Hospital also has Pakistani doctors offering free medical services
Dubai: Emirates Field Hospital has successfully treated more than 7,000 children, women and the elderly affected by floods in Pakistani villages.
Since the start of the unprecedented monsoon rains and flooding, more than 1,500 people have died and thousands more have been injured. The floods have affected 33 million people, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
Doctors and medical workers have been battling the increase in waterborne diseases and other infections, and struggling to treat the sick and deliver medicines, food supplies and tents to people displaced by the floods.
The Emirates Field Hospital in Sindh Province in Pakistan is on the frontline to provide medical assistance to the flood-hit families through mobile medical teams, mobile clinics and a field hospital equipped with the latest diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive equipment.
Working under the supervision of the UAE Embassy in Islamabad and the Consulate General in Karachi in coordination with the Pakistani Ministry of Health, it is operated with the participation of UAE and Pakistani doctors who are volunteers in the Emirates Medical Relief Programme.
The joint initiative of UAE and Pakistani health and humanitarian institutions has proven to be a distinctive model of joint humanitarian work to alleviate the suffering of patients, especially children, women and the elderly.
Enhancing humanitarian tasks
Dr Adel Al Shamri Al Ajmi, CEO of Zayed Al Ataa Initiative, chief physician of the UAE and director of the Emirates Medical Relief Programme, said that the Emirates Field Hospital enhances its humanitarian tasks through its mobile medical teams in villages located in the vicinity of flood-affected areas in Sindh province.
This is done according to a study prepared by the team to cover the segments that have not been reached by humanitarian and health services to reduce the effects of the disaster in Pakistan.
He pointed out that UAE doctors launched their programme in various Pakistani villages through the efforts of volunteer doctors in the Emirates Medical Relief Programme.
The initiative continues its diagnostic and therapeutic programmes with more gradual expansion to accommodate the largest number of affected segments in the vicinity of its humanitarian services to reduce the seriousness of the health situation and the repercussions of the disaster on the most affected groups.
Onsite, virtual services
He pointed out that the doctors of the UAE-Pakistan Field Hospital have succeeded in gaining the best and specialised medical competencies from the UAE and Pakistan.
The facility is enabling them to volunteer in the field and virtually to provide diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive services to thousands of women, children and the elderly through the mobile clinics of the field hospital.
This is in line with the directives of the wise leadership led by the President His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to adopt innovative humanitarian projects, and to translate the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, by activating the humanitarian partnership and empowering young people in the service of humanity.
Dr Adel explained that the volunteer medical teams focused on meeting the needs of those affected by chronic diseases in light of their inability to reach the health clinics where they are treated. This was in addition to providing various pharmaceutical items and conducting medical examinations that revealed many different pathological conditions.
Free medicines
Dr Mumtaz Al Balushi, director of Humanitarian Physicians in Pakistan, said that the Emirates Field Hospital and its mobile units have delivered the necessary medical services and dispense free medicines to those affected in the most affected areas, despite the logistical challenges caused by the damage to infrastructure and the dredging of roads leading to those areas.
He stressed that the UAE doctors have expanded their tasks in Pakistan during the past days to include the areas most affected by the repercussions of the disaster in Sindh province, in coordination with Pakistani health and humanitarian institutions. He pointed out that the UAE and Pakistani medical teams are keen to continue their humanitarian endeavours, to alleviate the suffering of patients in the affected areas.
He added that the field medical teams will continue their efforts and will enhance their diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive services until the current conditions are cleared and life returns to normal and to what it was before the disaster.