Dubai Health Authority organizes comprehensive workshop with school health professionals

• Workshop tackles several issues such as child abuse, chronic diseases, infectious diseases and emergencies.
• Series of workshops to follow, based on topics selected by school health professionals.
• Workshops organized by DHA in conjunction with pediatric experts from Latifa Hospital.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 4, 2014: The school health unit within the DHA's Health Regulation Department recently organized a  ‘pediatric up-to-date' workshop in conjunction with Latifa Hospital for medical staff (doctors and nurses) and health workers of all private and government schools in Dubai.

More than 400 doctors and nurses attended the  workshop that was held at the Rashid Medical Library and discussed various topics including child abuse, managing asthma, food poisoning, infectious diseases, chronic diseases and emergency care.

Dr Ramadan Ibrahim, director of health regulation at the DHA, said: “The aim of holding such regular workshops stems from the DHA's vision of providing high quality medical services for students and this is possible through regular training of medical staff in schools.”

He said the topics of this workshop was selected after receiving feedback from medical professionals in schools.

Dr. Amr Al Zawahiri, specialist pediatrician in Latifa Hospital discussed how to treat critical cases such as heart attacks. He provided an overview of the latest technique to treat emergencies using the PALS( pediatric advanced life support) program and discussed in detail the protocols for handling emergency cases in schools.

He urged all medical staff in school to update themselves with the latest in emergency care to ensure the wellbeing of students.

Amal Ali Almehrezi, Head of School Health, Health Regulation Department at the DHA, said: “ This time we incorporated topics such as identification of child abuse cases, reporting of these cases, the steps involved to protect the child, counselling and support as well as other medical topics such as diagnosing, identifying, managing and reporting of infectious diseases and, chronic disease management.

“Children spend several hours of the day in school and it is our duty to create a safe environment for them. Such workshops help update medical professionals about the latest in paediatric care and management.”

She said the DHA will continue to regularly carry out such workshops on school health to ensure medical safety of pupils in schools.