Hospital refuses emergency case due to lack of space

Dubai: A private hospital has defended its decision not to deal with an emergency case saying it would have been "negligent" if it had accepted the patient.

Welcare Hospital said it could not treat Zenda Scholtz because all its beds were taken. Scholtz, a Gulf News staff member, collapsed yesterday morning at work. She was vomiting and complaining of nausea.

Colleagues of the South African account group manager contacted Welcare Hospital where Scholtz had been treated in the past but were told there was no space available.

Simon Thomas, a senior account group manager at Gulf News, said: "When we called Welcare they wouldn't send an ambulance and when we got through to the doctor he said 'please don't bring her because we don't have any beds available.'

'We were desperate'

"We didn't know what to do because that doctor was the one who usually treats her and knew her history. We were kind of desperate because she had broken down and collapsed. We were clueless as to what could be done," he said.

Another hospital was contacted, but although there was a bed available, Scholtz's colleagues realised her medical insurance did not cover treatment there. Thomas said Scholtz was eventually taken by ambulance to another private hospital, where she is now recovering.

Michael Stroud, chief executive of Welcare Hospital, said: "If we don't have a bed available then we would be negligent in accepting that person.

"The situation is that the hospital is full and we cannot accept any acute admissions until we've discharged someone. We were acting appropriately. We couldn't treat the patient," he said.

The Welcare Hospital, based in Garhoud, has 120 beds, 12 of which are adult intensive care unit (ICU) beds.

"All 12 ICU beds are completely full and the rest of the hospital is full so we cannot discharge patients from ICU to a normal bed. We are not a huge hospital but we are very popular because we are seen as a hospital that gives very good clinical care," Stroud added

Stroud said that if an emergency case actually arrived at the hospital, the patient "absolutely" would get treated.

"We have a duty of care to treat anyone [who is an emergency case] who comes over the threshold of the hospital. If someone just had a cough or a cold we would advise them to go elsewhere," he said.

Stroud said that even when the hospital was not full some types of emergency were best treated elsewhere.

"We don't deal with anything acute to deal with the head, for example. We say go to Rashid Hospital or the Neuro-Spinal Hospital where they are better at treating that kind of patient," he said.

'Critical cases will not be turned away'

Dubai: Emergency and critical cases will not be turned away for any reason, including lack of beds, at any Dubai government hospital, says a leading critical medical specialist here.

Instead, the emergency department will move and transfer stable cases to other wards or hospitals to make way for incoming emergency and critical cases if there are not enough beds.

Dr Hussain Nasser Al Rahma, head of critical care unit and former head of emergency at Rashid Hospital, told Gulf News that emergency and critical cases were considered priority at the hospitals.

"Usually, if the patient comes as an emergency and there are no beds available at that moment, the policy is to move stable patients [to another ward or hospital] to make way for the more serious case," he said.

He added that in the event that all cases in the emergency ward were still unstable and could not be moved, doctors would "stabilise the new case first before moving him or her to another hospital".

Dr Al Rahma said the policy has been effective since 1999 when lack of bed space became a concern due to the population explosion that accompanied Dubai's rapid development and expansion.

Dubai has two hospitals under the Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services (Dohms) that deals with emergencies: Dubai Hospital in Deira and Rashid Hospital in Bur Dubai. Al Wasl Hospital in Bur Dubai only takes emergency obstetrics and gynaecology cases.

Emergency care is free to everyone in the UAE, regardless of nationality.

- Nina Muslim, Staff Reporter