Dubai: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) on Monday inaugurated a new 18-bed Neurology and Stroke Unit at Rashid Hospital, which will provide 24/7 emergency service and outpatient and inpatient care.
Humaid Al Qutami, Director-General of the DHA, along with a number of DHA officials on Monday launched ward 25.
The unit will offer specialised neurology services to the 20,000 visitors (both outpatient and inpatient) the neurology department receives on average annually.
During the launch, Al Qutami said: “The expansions are in line with the authority’s goals of providing specialised medical care to the community. The DHA strives to continuously develop all medical departments across DHA facilities and ensure that they are equipped with the latest state-of-the art technologies and qualified staff.”
Al Qutami also commended businessman Yousuf Mohammad Hadi Badri for sponsoring the new unit and contributing to the developmental drive of the health sector in Dubai.
Dr Abu Bakr Al Madani, head of the neurology department at Rashid Hospital, said the institution’s neurology unit is the largest in the UAE, catering to more than 20,000 patients every year.
In 2018, it attended to 22,700 patients.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths in the UAE.
Latest figures show one in three Emiratis have hypertension, which may lead to strokes.
“The department’s scope of services includes emergency service [24/7], outpatient clinics [general and specialised], inpatients including critical care patients, inpatient consultations at Dubai hospital and Latifa Hospital, electrophysiological studies, specialised procedures including Botox injections, baclofen pump and DBS programming to name a few,” he said.
Dr Madani said the department serves as a primary training centre for neurology residents and for periodic training for residents from sister specialities.
“We have a dedicated neurology ward for high and low dependency patients, including acute stoke patients, and a specialised epilepsy monitoring unit,” Dr Madani said.
“Our inpatient unit receives between 600 to 1,000 patients per year and the most common admissions under neurology service includes acute stroke thrombolysis and intervention, neurological emergencies [including status epilepticus, myasthenic crisis, transverse myelitis, auto immune encephalitis and neuroleptic malignant syndrome].”
The department’s outpatient unit includes specialised clinics for movement disorders, neuromuscular conditions, epilepsy, dystonia and electrophysiology, in addition to general neurology services.
