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Now hospitals to get feedback from patients

Dubai - 95 per cent of patients were either discharged or admitted within four hours of visiting the accident and emergency department in any government hospital.

A patient waits for an average 44.7 minutes in an outpatient clinic before being seen by a doctor in a government hospital operating under the Ministry of Health. This time could now be reduced according to Ministry of Health officials.
Statistics from 2015 also showed that the average stay of a patient in the hospital was 3.8 days while 95 per cent of patients were either discharged or admitted within four hours of visiting the accident and emergency department in any government hospital.
UAE Ministry of Health officials said at Arab Health on Tuesday that they were trying to reduce these numbers through an evaluation-based programme.
They said that hospitals and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) were being assessed by an evaluation programme comprising 32 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), of which four were patient-centric.
"Patients will soon be able to know what exactly is going on in government hospitals and give us feedback and their opinion, as well," said Dr Yousif Mohammed Al Serkal, Assistant Undersecretary for Hospitals Sector at the ministry.
He said a detailed report on these statistics will be made available to the public in 2017. "We want to be transparent ... this will also give the public a chance to participate," he said, adding that this will give a boost to medical tourism, as well.
The public will, however, have their say in only four KPIs including surgical re-infection rates, average length of stay in hospitals, waiting times and outpatient clinics and patient satisfaction.
A part of evaluation for hospitals already started in September 2012 under the PACE programme which assessed the clinical performance of accident and emergency units as well as outpatient clinics.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com