Northern emirates lag behind in emergency care

Fujairah: Emergency and accident treatment standards in some of the northern emirates are lagging behind their counterparts in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, admitted a leading health official.

Dr Ali Shakar, Director General of the Health Authority says the medical treatment and resources available in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have surpassed those in the northern emirates.

He said: "I agree there is room for improvement when it comes to the training and resources available to emergency medics in some of the northern emirates and it is something we're working on."

"We intend to improve quality and standards of medics and emergency crews, especially in the northern emirates," he added.

Dr Shakar said the health authority is currently studying plans for a training centre for the treatment of emergency and trauma which will likely be located in one of the northern emirates.

The director general was speaking at the launch ceremony recently of the second Emirates Emergency Surgery and Trauma Conference at Fujairah Hospital.

The two-day gathering held a number of lectures and workshops by a team of local and international participants aimed at exchanging medical experiences and practice in the fields of emergency and trauma treatment.

Dr Shakar's comments came in the wake of similar concerns expressed by conference contributors.

Professor Christoph Kaufmann, Associate Trauma Director at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Oregon, US, was among the leading contributors to the conference, making his third visit to the UAE.

Kaufmann acknowledged that the UAE has made huge strides in this field and was on hand to award the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) achievement award to the UAE's ATLS programme and its leaders.

He, however, made the point that such conferences are needed even more given some of the feedback he gets from locally-based doctors.

He said: "Some doctors here talk about disorganised emergency responses and lack of proper emergency treatment procedures and that is why we need to constantly exchange experiences and methods so we can- as a medical community- learn from each other's success."

"One of the things we did in the US is to closely monitor emergency treatment procedures at hospitals to assess and improve performances with the aim of reducing mortality rate and that is something that others have taken on elsewhere.