Abu Dhabi: More awareness of emergency-related medical cases is needed, according to a Public Safety Department official.

Karima Reffaf Talbi, Director of Medical Training at the department said it is vital for people to start giving way for emergency vehicles and cases.

"People need to be aware of emergency related cases, and when faced with an ill person or witness an accident, they should simply contact an ambulance and let the emergency crew do their job. That's the whole point of the lecture I gave today," she told Gulf News at the Abu Dhabi Medical Congress.

Expediential growth has been witnessed in the first few hours of the Congress with around 2,000 medical delegates arriving from various parts of the world.

Over 200 exhibitors are covering the three-day medical congress at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), which is mostly focused on three critical areas of medicine: patient safety, medical emergencies and primary healthcare.

The congress will run from October 26 to 28. Around 60 per cent of the medical delegates arrived from the GCC area, said Senior Event Coordinator for the Abu Dhabi Medical Congress, Hayley Holbrook.

Simon Page, Director of the Life Science Division at IIR Middle East, organisers of the congress, told Gulf News that the exhibition has witnessed more patient safety programmes than last year.