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Plans for a healthy future

The expansion plans that includes three new hospitals, 40 primary healthcare centres (PHCs) and a Dh3 billion extension for Rashid Hospital are part of the freshly announced Dubai Health Strategy for 2013 to 2025. The strategy focuses on meeting healthcare needs for the fast-growing population.

Under the plan, hospitals will be built within eight to 12 kilometres and health centres within three to five kilometres of all catchment areas. Also, alongside a newly-expanded Rashid Hospital, two four and five-star hotels and a souq will be constructed for medical tourists and their families.

The three new hospitals that will be built are Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Hospital on Shaikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, Al Maktoum Hospital in Jebel Ali’s Al Maktoum Airport area, and Al Khawaneej Hospital.

A new customer satisfaction index was also inaugurated by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, during a recent visit to the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) headquarters where he approved the strategy.

The strategy is aligned to Shaikh Mohammed’s Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 that aims to provide Dubai residents and visitors with access to internationally recognised levels of healthcare.

DHA Director-General Essa Al Maidoor, while addressing staff members recently, said: “For us all, going forward, customer care has to be priority. Patients and their families need our utmost care and compassion. Excellence in healthcare services and customer care must go hand-in-hand.

“After analysis of the Dubai population growth study and after looking into all the health services presently available across the emirate, we chalked out additional projects required until 2025,” he said.

“We will have hospitals within the radius of eight to 12 kilometres from all catchment areas and health centres within three to five kilometres of all catchment areas.”

Al Maidoor also said the expansion plans would provide state-of-the-art services to Dubai residents as well as medical tourists. “We have also taken into consideration landscaping, leisure activities, hotel accommodation for medical tourists (and) staff accommodation (among other things). All these aspects ensure we have taken a 360 degree view of the requirements of patients, their families, staff members and medical tourists.”

Centre for the elderly

The expanded centre will include a heritage market with coffee shops, traditional fanfare activities and a mosque with a capacity for 150 worshippers. This will help facilitate regular interaction with members of the elderly centre.

“The heritage market will bring back memories of life in the old days in the UAE and the elderly population will also get an opportunity to interact with the community,” said Al Maidoor.

Dubai Diagnostic Centre

The Dubai Diagnostic Centre will be linked to 5,000 diagnostic centres in the world and will be built with the latest technology and international standards.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com

Rashid Hospital expansion

A total of 900 beds, six new specialised health centres, two hotels and numerous other facilities will be part of the Dh3-billion expansion project for Rashid Hospital that will be rebuilt within its adjoining area.

The plan, to be completed on 100,000 square metres, includes one four star and another five star hotel, villas and flats for staff accommodation, a mosque, lake way and landscaping and open spaces for children and families.

“The plan has been designed to ensure the hospital, hotel, rehabilitation and recreational areas face the Dubai Creek Park-Al Khor Park so that patients and medical tourists can enjoy panoramic views of the creek. All colour schemes and interiors will also aid in the healing process and provide a positive and relaxing atmosphere,” explained Al Maidoor.

The master plan has been divided into two categories — treatment area and hospitalisation area. “Rashid Hospital’s three-tower design has been inspired from Shaikh Mohammed’s three finger acknowledgement. The three fingers stand for victory, triumph and I love you,” Al Maidoor said.

Each tower will be seven storeys and will have 300 beds, bringing the total capacity to 900 beds. A covered car parking area that can accommodate 4,000 cars will be connected to the hospital. The area will also have a mall with a walkway that has a string of coffee shops, utility stores, flower shops, and the like.

The ground and first floor of each tower will have operation rooms, radiology labs, laboratories and other common services. Patient rooms will be located from the second to the fifth floor. The towers will have six VIP rooms and seven royal suites.

The six new specialised centres will include day-care surgery, oncology, ophthalmology and haematology. A dedicated outpatient building will also be established to reduce the pressure on hospitals. A state-of-the-art outpatient building will be built as part of the project, using the Dh38 million sponsored by Abdulsalam Rafi and Sons. The outpatient building will also have an additional floor completely dedicated to the field of dentistry.

Expansion of trauma centre

An additional 160 beds (to the existing 56) and 116 treatment rooms will be added to the trauma centre over the next two years. “The plan is being built on the concept of pre-engineered buildings which means the trauma centre will continue to function as usual and at the same time the expansion work will be ongoing,” added Al Maidoor.

A state-of-the-art rehabilitation centre that can accommodate 500 beds is also part of the plan. A covered parking facility will accommodate 2,500 cars while two hotels with a total capacity of 1,000 rooms will also be constructed. The five-star hotel will also have 20 chalets. The rehabilitation area will have a health and fitness centre, a smoking cessation clinic and a relaxation area to promote health and wellness. “Patients who come for rehabilitation and do not need hospitalisation can stay in the hotels,” said Al Maidoor. A souq will come up with 150 shops and 200 flats for commercial and residential purposes while the staff housing will accommodate 5,400 families of doctors, nurses and technicians. An additional 120 villas will be constructed for specialists.

Happy or unhappy?

Before exiting the premises, customers will have the chance to rate the levels of service they have received at DHA’s healthcare centres through the satisfaction index.

“The customer service mechanism has two bars — red and green. Green signifies satisfaction and red signifies dissatisfaction. The system is simple and can be used by customers who have used DHA services. “Before exiting the premises, customers can press the ‘happy’ or ‘unhappy’ button and the rating will appear on the screen in the form of red and green bars,” said Al Maidoor.

“The screen is for all to see and changes every 30 seconds. It will be implemented across all DHA hospitals and primary healthcare centres. The DHA headquarters will have an area where all these screens are displayed and customer satisfaction can be viewed in real time,” he added.

Customer feedback will be received at the end of the service channel including registration, service provision and procurement of medicines from the pharmacy. Each hospital and health centre will have customer relations personnel who will assist those in need.

They will wear a beige jacket which helps people easily identify them. Questions such as ‘Please direct me to the nearest pharmacy’, and ‘How can I register?’ will be promptly addressed.