In recognition of the heavy burden placed on Rashid Hospital’s Trauma Centre, in 2013, Dubai Health Authority (DHA) launched 24-hour primary healthcare centres. As well as easing the pressure on Rashid Hospital, the health centres have treated thousands of patients who would otherwise have visited a trauma centre meant for emergency cases.
In fact, in 2017, more than 181,000 patients visited the Al Barsha Primary Health Centre. Of these, 21,000 patients visited the centre during the night shift.
The introduction of round-the-clock and urgent care across two primary healthcare centres at DHA in mid 2013 has progressively helped in reducing the number of non-emergency cases that visit Rashid Hospital’s Trauma Centre, said a top health official.
Dr Alia Mohammed Rafie, Consultant Family Medicine and Head of Al Barsha Health Centre, said the introduction of the urgent care units at these two centres and the fact they function 24 hours have directly helped in alleviating the pressure that Dubai’s Trauma and Emergency Centre at Rashid Hospital faces.
“In mid 2013, we decided to provide 24-hour service and urgent care across two primary healthcare centres so that patients who needed urgent but not emergency care could visit primary healthcare centres rather than going to Rashid Hospital’s Emergency Centre, which caters to cases such as poly trauma, cardiac arrest and strokes,” she said. “Over the years, patients have become well aware of our services and we have seen a steady increase in the number of patients visiting the 24-hour clinics.”
The two primary healthcare centres are capable of effectively treating urgent cases and are equipped with multidisciplinary specialists.
Dr Elham Al Nuaimi, Head of 24-hour service unit in Al Barsha Health Centre, said the service is of vital importance because it helps provide better access to healthcare and geographical proximity and reduce the pressure that hospital emergency departments face due to non-emergency cases.
She said the primary healthcare centres should be the first point of contact for patients except for emergencies. “During emergencies such as a heart attack or a major trauma, the window period from the time of the incident to the time the patient receives medical intervention is of vital importance. It is best in such cases that the patient goes to the hospital directly. At our centre we can stabilise such patients and then we transfer them to the hospital.
“Our clinics are equipped to deal with urgent cases such as fever, fractures and minor falls.”
Dr Ayesha Al Basti, Specialist Family Physician and Acting Head of Nad Al Hamar Health Centre, said primary healthcare centres provide services including outpatient family medicine, child health services, antenatal care, dental services, some specialist clinics such as ENT, ophthalmology and dermatology in addition to supportive services such as pharmacy, X-ray and laboratory services.
In 2017, the centres started a headache clinic after studying the number of cases of headaches they received. A neurologist from DHA hospital and a family physician attended this clinic ensuring specialised care is provided in primary healthcare centres.
Primary healthcare clinics also offer preventive screening packages at discounted rates for women’s, men’s and adolescents’ health as well as smoking cessation packages. In addition, the DHA primary healthcare sector regularly holds health education and screening programmes for various diseases across its health centres.
