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Rashid Hospital admits record number of patients on Eid

A record number of patients, the second highest in the history of Rashid Hospital’s Trauma Centre, visited the centre on the last day of the Eid holidays.

With a total of 556 patients rushing to the centre on Sunday, it was the centre’s busiest day of this year and the second busiest in the history of the trauma centre up til now, an official said.

The highest number of patients seen in a day at the centre is 580, said Dr Michael Abbo, Head of Emergency Department at Rashid Hospital Trauma Centre.

“The patient numbers were bound to increase since half a million people came into the country to celebrate Eid,” he said.

Road accident injuries topped the list of the patient admissions, followed by heart attacks and injuries resulting from falls, especially amongst children. A few cases of pneumonia and depression were also reported.

A shoulder dislocation due to a parachute jump and a drug overdose case were some of the different cases the doctors attended to on October 24.

“Cases of injured workers, which are normally the highest we see at the centre, also remained low due to the holidays except for a single case where 10 workers were injured in a gas blast in their accommodation,” he added.

Statistics also varied in terms of the people of different nationalities who fell ill. “We have had huge numbers of tourist patients from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and other GCC countries as compared to the regular UAE residents,” explained Dr Abbo.

“It was up to 10-15 Saudi patients per day compared to the odd one on normal days,” he added. He also said staff shifts had to be adjusted to meet the rush of patients at night during the holidays as compared to regular days. “This is because people stay up later to celebrate,” he added.

Like every emergency department in the world, Dr Abbo said that Rashid Hospital Trauma Centre was running at 100-115 per cent capacity, while plans were on for expansion.

The trauma centre was established in 2006 and is one of the largest of its kind worldwide and the busiest in the region with a 57-bed emergency department.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com