Health: A shift in days, that's all folks

Dubai: The weekend shift, which came into effect yesterday, is unlikely to affect public healthcare services, officials said.

As September 1 falls on a Friday, clinics and other hospitals will be closed for three days. The new weekend will not affect emergency and inpatient services.

Officials at the Ministry of Health, Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services (Dohms) and Abu Dhabi General Authority on Health Services (Gahs) told Gulf News that hospital hours will remain the same although the days will not.

"For now, the hours are the same; hospitals will just have a shift in days," said a senior health ministry official, adding that the new schedule for ministry hospitals would come out in a few days. Dr Abdul Rahim Mostafawi, acting director of Al Wasl Hospital, said all hospital services, such as outpatient treatment, operating theatres and clinic appointments scheduled for Saturday would be shifted to Thursday. "Everything will be the same. Anything that is supposed to be on Saturday will now be on Thursday," said Dr Abdul Rahim Mostafawi, acting director of Al Wasl Hospital.

Notification

He added that patients with appointments in September were notified of the change in May.

Clinic hours at the hospitals remain the same from 8am to 2:30pm on weekdays. Primary healthcare centres will be open as usual from 7am to 10pm from Sunday to Thursday, and from 8am to noon on Saturday.

Public hospitals in Abu Dhabi, which are under Gahs, have also rescheduled their days albeit differently from Dohms.

Dr John Guy, medical director at Shaikh Khalifa Medical City, said all hospital services would be brought over to the following days: Saturday appointments to Sunday, Sunday appointments to Monday and so on.

"We will have exactly the same service, it's just that everything will be moved from Saturday to Sunday," he said.