Dubai Health Authority holds brainstorming session to discuss further collaboration between hospital and primary healthcare sector

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 16 April 2016:  The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) held today a brainstorming session to discuss ways to strengthen collaboration between the Authority’s hospital and primary healthcare sector.

The aim of the session was to help device mechanisms and policies that will help further strengthen the continuum of care for patients.

HE Humaid Al Qatami, Chairman of the Board and Director-General of the DHA, said that the Authority’s focus remains patient-centric care and that further developing mechanisms and policies to strengthen continuum of care across DHA’s hospitals and primary healthcare centres will directly benefit patients as well as the functioning of these entities.

Al Qatami added that the Authority is keen to promote joint training programs for healthcare professionals from the hospital and primary healthcare sector and developing mechanisms to enhance communication healthcare providers at the DHA.

Al Qatami pointed out that the Authority’s smart health plans will further help facilitate continuum of care.

Dr Ahmad Bin Kalban, CEO of Hospital Sector, said that this collaboration shall help further enhance health efficacies and that the aim is to further enhance continuum of care across all stages: prevention and well-being, diagnosis, treatment, recovery and home-care.

Dr Manal Al Taryam, CEO of Primary Healthcare Sector at the DHA, highlighted some examples of continuum of care such as the introduction of 24-hours primary healthcare centres and urgent care in these centres that has directly resulted in the reduction of non-emergency cases going to the trauma centre at Rashid Hospital.

DHA has two centres – Al Barsha and Nad Al Hammar that provide 24-hour services.

According to 2015 statistics, 80,169 patients visited the Al Barsha centre and 107,625 patients visited the Nad Al Hammar Centre.

 Taryam added “The DHA primary healthcare centres provide several speciality services and act as the first-line-of-contact between patients and healthcare providers. We already have a number of initiatives that ensures efficient frontline services and referrals for patients who need hospital services. The aim of this initiative is to further develop ways in which we can provide such continuum of care which directly benefits patients.”