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Govt. hospitals plan to outsource in-patient care

DUBAI — Treatment for patients admitted to government hospitals for immediate and long-term care will be outsourced to private facilities during disasters or calamities to overcome bed occupancy issues.

A senior health official from the Dubai health Authority said that the government at present had 60 per cent control over the services provided to patients who need critical care.

Speaking at the International Emergency and Catastrophe Management Conference and Exhibition — IECM Dubai 2008 — on Wednesday, Dr Moin Fikree, Consultant Emergency Physician and Clinical Director of the Accident and Emergency Trauma Centre, said as part of the Dubai Health Authority’s National Disaster Management Plan ‘Vision 2015’, at least 70 per cent of these services will be taken over by the private sector in future.

“The government aims at reducing its burden of patients requiring intermediate to long-term stay in hospitals and bring it to a 25-30 per cent level,” he said, explaining that the resources of private hospitals could prove to be an asset to the National Disaster and Emergency Response programme.

He also said hospitals such as the Rashid Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre would then only concentrate on emergency and critical cases.

“Private hospitals are developing facilities to this end while government hospitals are cutting down on such services so as to outsource them to private facilities. “Dubai is also in the process of entering into contracts with private facilities to shift patients to the latter in the event of a mass disaster,” he said.