6 December 2017, UAE: H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union, GWU, President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation, FDF, today officially inaugurated Danat Al Emarat Hospital for Women and Children in Abu Dhabi, part of United Eastern Medical Services, UEMedical.
After unveiling the memorial plaque during the inauguration, H.H. Sheikha Fatima affirmed that, under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE is committed to provide the best healthcare services to all citizens and residents, as people are the real wealth of any society, pointing out that UAE intensely focuses on the health sector and has established an advanced network of hospitals and health centres to provide comprehensive and advanced specialised healthcare services to its people.
She said, “The UAE leadership has built the infrastructure needed to provide high quality care, specifically for women and children, through specialised hospitals and medical centres, which contributes in raising the bar of excellence in healthcare offered to mothers and children and achieving clinical outcomes in parallel with international statistics in terms of reducing perinatal and neonatal mortality rates.”
Her Highness also assured that the UAE supports the private sector, which is considered a main partner in the provision of healthcare services along with the government sector. And today the private sector’s role is evident in providing quality healthcare services, including specialised services, which was supported by the successful implementation of the healthcare insurance for almost ten years.
Sheikha Fatima added that establishing a specialised hospital for women and children in the private sector aims to provide advanced services for this important segment, and helps in improving health services delivery through attracting qualified and experienced clinicians and introducing advanced technologies which can help in diagnosing and treating different diseases in compliance with the best international standards.
She praised the quality of the healthcare services provided for mothers and children in Abu Dhabi, pointing out that Danat Al Emarat Hospital for Women and Children is one of the essential facilities in Abu Dhabi, which has been contributing significantly to the advancement of the healthcare sector in the Emirate.
Her Highness toured the hospital and visited different departments including the labor and delivery rooms, the pediatrics clinics, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NICU, the mammogram unit and the minimal invasive gynecologic surgery department. During the tour, Sheikha Fatima was briefed about the nature and type of the specialised services that the hospital provides, and the future plans of the UEMedical group, which also includes HealthPlus Network of Specialty Centers and Moorfields Eye Hospital Abu Dhabi besides Danat Al Emarat Hospital.
An overview about the hospital’s fetal medicine department was also presented to Her Highness with a short brief about its role in diagnosing fetuse malformations in early stages of pregnancy. The department encompasses the latest medical equipment and technologies, and is staffed by experienced physicians specialised in fetal medicine aiming to prevent any complications that might affect the growth of the fetus. The fetal medicine department is one of the most important medical units in the hospital that works closely with its pediatric surgery department and the 23-bedded NICU, which are managed by specialised physicians and nurses in neonatology, and are equipped with the latest technologies to support preterm babies.
Her Highness was also briefed on the community outreach programmes that the hospital will organise throughout the year, to spread awareness and promote healthy lifestyles in the society, contributing to building healthier societies starting from an early age; in addition to the hospital’s educational programmes geared towards women during prenatal and postnatal stages.
During the inauguration ceremony, Mr. Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa Al Hammadi, Managing Director and CEO of UEMedical, expressed his profound gratitude to Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak for inaugurating the hospital and visiting its different departments.
Mr. Al Hammadi praised Her Highness for her unconditional support when it comes to mothers and children healthcare services in UAE; affirming that her great attention towards prevention programmes, especially children’s vaccination programmes contributed to the eradication of many diseases and the reduction of infections, besides her support to all other healthcare services provided to mothers and children in line with Department of Health – Abu Dhabi strategies and visions.
Mr. Al Shorafa also revealed that Danat Al Emarat Hospital management has plans to increase its bed capacity in the next few years in line with the high demand for specialised health services. The second stage will include an identical building next to the main current building located in Abu Dhabi Gate City. He explained that the current building capacity is 150 beds, valued at AED600 million, and the second building’s capacity will include 90 beds, valued at AED200 million, which includes labor and delivery wards, in addition to all different surgical and medical specialties for women and children.
Mr. Al Shorafa said, “Since the hospital welcomed the first newborn in October 2015, the number of female patients exceeded 23,000, and pediatric patients exceeded 15,000. As of today, newborns delivered at the hospital reached 5,700, of which 3,100 were UAE Nationals, and the number of children and women surgeries performed reached 1,650 surgeries. The hospital also welcomed 65,380 visits in the outpatient clinics during 2016, and has doubled to 111,000 visits in 2017 until end of November, which demonstrates the high demand for specialised women and children specialties.”
Danat Al Emarat specialties include an extensive obstetrics and gynecology department, laparoscopy and minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, fetal medicine, neonatology and pediatrics, a 23-bed NICU level III, an Intensive Care Unit specialised for women, internal medicine, diabetes, rheumatology and endocrinology, surgical specialties, pediatric cardiology, pediatric ENT, and many other specialised services in addition to breast imaging and mammogram units.
More than 500 staff are employed at the hospital, including 75 physicians and 300 nurses and technicians. The hospital encompasses ten specialised labor and delivery rooms, four rooms operating rooms, one room for minor surgeries, same-day surgeries and laparoscopic surgeries. Its highly specialised NICU includes 23 beds of level III. The hospital also operates a 3-bed ICU for women, and a Pediatric ICU, PICU, that includes two beds.
Mr. Al Shorafa assured that the group and hospital’s management vision revolve around providing comprehensive healthcare services for women and children, under the care of top notch physicians in different medical specialties, ensuring the best healthcare services in compliance with international standards.
Noura Al Suwaidi, Director of the GWU, along with a number of officials attended the inauguration.
