How does your hospital fit into Dubai’s broader healthcare sector?

MUNA TAHLAK The objective of Latifa Hospital, as a specialized hospital for women and children, is to provide the comprehensive and best care for this category of the population in Dubai. We want to be able to provide what our clients need in terms of healthcare and to be center for referral. It is well known that high-risk cases and difficult cases require more resources and expertise and also costs a lot more. As we are generally a tertiary center, we get all of these referrals from all the UAE, whereas the private clinics usually take care of the lower-risk cases. We see ourselves complementing each other in relation to the public and private sector.

DR. ABUDULRAHMAN MOHAMMAD SALEH AL JASSMI Dubai Hospital is a tertiary medical care provider, which is unique for Dubai and we want to remain like that. Medical care in Dubai has been available for the past 40 years and it was developing in all aspects, but development in tertiary care is not to the optimum level. We still have a group of patients who are traveling aboard for certain kinds of treatment and we at Dubai Hospital are targeting that group and are continuously enhancing tertiary care and developing several fields of healthcare with a focus on super-specialty in those fields. Our objective is to provide a variety of advanced care in different specialties.

What are your expectations and plans for the coming period?

MT I see a bright future with many new things happening. One is that with the insurance legislation coming through we will see a positive impact on how we manage our hospital. It will provide everyone with access to healthcare, promote positive competition in the health sector, and help investment in healthcare. We expect to see an increase in the number of patients we serve. With more people being insured, we expect more people seeking treatment that otherwise would not. We have plans to expand and to add new services. We have just finished our master plan for the region, and there is a lot of development in infrastructure and human capital. EMR, the electronic medical record system, and the health record is another great project that we are looking forward to. I can see that we are getting closer to where we can transform healthcare in Dubai.

AMSAJ We intend to develop at least one center of excellence per year and this year the Dubai Kidney Center will be the first. It currently holds 48 beds and we provide care for about 260 patients in terms of dialysis. Once the new center is operational it will have an enhanced capacity to treat 350 patients and in 2016 we aim to carry out our first kidney transplant. In terms of cancer treatment, we already specialize in several services but we want to become a center of excellence in this field and therefore in the next few years, the aim is to continue to enhance our services, add new oncological services and ensure we can provide the highest quality care. Our hospital currently receives approximately 50% of pediatric cancer cases in the UAE and therefore the aim is to continue focusing on this service and eventually provide super specialization in this field. We want to concentrate on certain specialties; we have to concentrate on the quantity of care and the quality of it, too. Our central concentration is on tackling diabetes because of its high prevalence. We are also focusing on cancer treatments, cardiac disease, kidney disease, orthopedic and joint diseases, pediatric service facilities, and fetal medicine. These areas are our targets for the next five years and we are working on these programs.