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HEALTHCARE
COVID-19:
AN INTEGRATED HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS THE WAY FORWARD At King's College Hospital London, Dubai, multi-disciplinary teams have challenged the so-called old-fashioned siloed practice, and work as a single ecosystem to prioritize the health and well-being of its patients. Christian Schuhmacher, CEO, King's College Hospital London, Dubai highlights how a truly integrated approach is driving the country’s effective response to the pandemic
SMARTSMB / June 2020
W
ith dozens of healthcare facilities across the UAE, the country’s healthcare system is evolving faster than elsewhere in the world. A few weeks back, the World Health Organisation (WHO) commended the UAE for leading the front in COVID-19 by conducting the highest level of testing per million in the world, which is an effective strategy of keeping track of the virus, which is pertinent to knowing the necessary measures to take in combating the epidemic. All these efforts have been made possible by the integrated healthcare system put in place to unite all the key health delivery systems.
ers in the wide healthcare field is key to effectively and efficiently tackle any challenge, and especially one on the scale of the current pandemic. In Dubai not only is the coordination of beds, both critical as well as normal beds centralized, but all relevant government agencies, from Dubai Ambulance, to Dubai Police, Dubai Municipality and many many others closely coordinate their efforts in tackling COVID 19 in Dubai.
And it went beyond just coordinating the immediate response. Also, research facilities like Mohammed Bin Rashid University (MBRU) is part of this unified approach and came up with groundbreaking analysis of the strain of virus here in the UAE. The key role The UAE is a set example of how unified in coordinating all these efforts in the policies Simon and infrastructures across the Fisher public and privateVice healthcare sectors sector is played by the Executive President - Gulf, ACEhealthcare Group COVID Central Command Center, where can work towards the delivery of a full all initiatives, challenges and learnrange of services and as a result imings are translated into practice and prove health outcomes. The collaboraunified policies. All the relevant regution and coordination between all play-
