Media Release
Abu Dhabi: Apr 25 : “To be prepared is half the victory” said Miguel de Cervantes, a fifteenth century Spanish writer.
In the light of ever increasing natural and man-made disasters happening in our area of the world, it is incumbent that hospitals be better prepared to receive a sudden massive influx of patients. Recognizing also that the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi is finalizing a plan which includes the private hospitals, Dr.C.R.Shetty, Medical Director of Abu Dhabi, NMC Hospital Abu Dhabi and Group Medical Director of NMC healthcare, decided to take a pro-active step in this direction.
NMC Specialty hospital is conducting a mock “emergency disaster management” drill on Friday, the 30th of April, 2010 with the help of the Civil Defense. A mock disaster will be simulated and NMC hospital will use its own staff to be “patients”.
As a first step Dr. Gamal Bebars, Specialist General Surgeon and Chief Disaster Officer, who has several years of experience in disaster management and recently joined NMC Specialty hospital, Abu Dhabi, developed an Emergency Drill Plan. The plan incorporates elements of various best practices in emergency disaster management from around the world. After it was approved, all staffs were trained in the emergency plan. The mock drill is the testing of this plan. Careful groundwork is being done to ensure that various kinds of patients can be managed. Various parts of the hospital have been prepared to receive patients of varying seriousness. “Patients” will be triaged in the main lobby and transported immediately to waiting teams in the treatment zones. In order to minimize disruption in the normal processes of healing, the drill has been scheduled early in the morning on Friday, among other measures. The whole drill will be audited by administrative and medical observers who will give their written feedback. Also, videographers will record all phases of the drill. During the subsequent feedback meeting the auditors will give their feedback. The videos also will be audited to see for areas of improvement. Accordingly, the Emergency drill plan will be updated.
The entire objective of the exercise is to be able to quickly and correctly identify the influx of patients, distribute them to the treatment zones and accurately manage their treatment needs. As Dr. B. R. Shetty, Managing Director and CEO of NMC Healthcare, frequently reminds – “we want to be the trusted provider of comprehensive healthcare services in the city of Abu Dhabi”. This is another effort in that direction.