World leaders are now prioritizing inoculation for elderly and health and welfare of the support staff and medical personnel. It has been a way to show mark of respect for these exemplary citizens of the world.

An international review committee of the International Hospital Federation (IHF) decided to honour one such group of brave heroes when they chose the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) to be awarded for its COVID-19 response action plan along with over 100 hospitals from 28 countries.

A recognition batch was conferred over them at the International Hospital Federation’s Beyond the Call of Duty for COVID-19 Programme recently. The DHA had an innovative Dubai Shield Programme that received recognition for proactively responding with outstanding and innovative actions in facing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was taken by a team of 16 industry experts from the healthcare industry. DHA and some private hospitals including Al Zahra, Aster Hospitals and Pharmacies, Medcare, Medcare Women and Children Hospital also received the recognition by IHF under the Beyond the Call of Duty for COVID-19 Programme.

What has been praiseworthy is how the hospital successfully increased the city’s testing capacity to 80,000 tests per day, under its novice the Dubai Shield Programme.

DHA made use of prefabricated modular materials and were able to build new healthcare facilities within just 60 days. Ideally, such projects are said to take typically 6-7 months to complete. They also collaborated their strengths with the private sector to increase the number of available isolation beds. Apart from building new facilities, the DHA also converted 89 hotels and non-medical buildings into quarantine & isolation facilities. The DHA could ensure that critical care services were uninterrupted. They shifted to telemedicine where applicable. However, essential services were on-site.

They also made use of an intelligent Doctor for Every Citizen (DFEC) plan that was launched in December 2019. The mandate of the programme fitted well with Covid-19 response plan.

DFRC provides 24/7 medical consultancy services focusing mainly on patients at highest risks of exposure including elderlies, immunity diseases’ & chronic diseases’ patients. Compared to 877 beneficiaries by Feb2020, DFEC has benefited more than 60,000 patients.

The DHA’s Blood Donation Centre was also a resounding success as they maintained adequate blood supply, creating separate pathways for COVID-19 plasma donations and a new temporary location for COVID-free donations.

The Dubai Shield Program also implemented a real-time communicable disease management system known as the Hasana Project. Hasana enables an emirate-wide network for reliable, accurate and real-time communicable disease oversight. It provides a unified system that connects public and private healthcare facilities, allowing the authorities to better control and mitigate the spread of diseases.

WAM