SEHA Acting Group COO Urges Members Of The Community To Vaccinate For Herd Immunity

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 30th Mar, 2021) The Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) has urged members of the community to vaccinate to achieve herd immunity, one of the most rapid and best ways to overcome the pandemic.

"We encourage everyone to vaccinate, so that we can achieve herd immunity," said Dr. Marwan Al Kaabi, Acting Group Chief Operations Officer, SEHA.

"Although many members of the community have been vaccinated, they must still adhere to safety precautions of always wearing a protective face mask when outside of the household and practice social distancing," she emphasised.

She also revealed that at the start of 2021, SEHA was heavily involved in the National Vaccination Programme and roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine, in over 60 locations.

In an exclusive interview for the Emiartes News Agency, WAM, Dr. Marwan also disclosed that many of their upcoming plans centre around seeking further efficiency in their processes and procedures, and increasing the accessibility of their services, "to further elevate patient experiences and remain focused on patient centricity".

"Moreover, we want to boost our adoption of technology across all units. We have several IT solutions in the pipeline designed to improve the patient journey, as well as the level and quality of services," she added.

She said that Abu Dhabi has done a remarkable job in keeping the number of COVID-19 cases and the rate of infection very low, with SEHA playing a prominent role – "something which gives us immense pride".

"From the onset, SEHA designated hospitals for coronavirus cases to ensure they are getting the right treatment and care, as we continue providing services to the community whilst adhering to safety measures," Al Kaabi said.

The measures include mandatory temperature checks at the entrance of all our facilities, requiring protective face masks, spacing appointments to limit the number of patients in the waiting areas, and reducing waiting time at hospitals.

"We have also separated any patients who present flu-like symptoms, to deliver quick and safe checkups, and consultations," he added.

Dr. Marwan Al Kaabi said that more and more members of the community are opting for telemedicine services, a service we introduced in March 2020. Since the launch, over half a million consultations have been completed to-date.

"We also continue delivering medication to people’s homes to ensure limited footfall at facilities and pharmacies."

She affirmed that the number of patient visits has temporarily dropped due to everyone being concerned about the safety of healthcare facilities, and some patients with serious conditions have also delayed or opted out of continuing treatment.

"SEHA has adopted strategies to ensure that all our hospitals are safe, whilst encouraging patients to visit facilities to get treated for any health issues. We also ensure that all non-COVID health issues are treated with the utmost care and safety within our facilities, without compromising on the quality of care delivered to patients.

"Since the start of the hospital safety campaign, we saw an increase in the number of patients coming back to the hospitals, especially in the outpatient clinics, and Emergency Department for non-COVID-19 medical requests," she noted.

She advised the patients with chronic conditions like diabetes, cancer, or autoimmune diseases to continue seeking the counsel of their physicians, and clinical providers to avoid potential complications from medical conditions and diseases, that may perhaps be more harmful than COVID-19.

She said that delaying medical attention for a condition can increase the risk of infection or severity of symptoms if an infection does happen.

On adopting technological innovations or digital solutions like telemedicine, Dr. Marwan said that SEHA already has an existing robust Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, as well as the knowledge and expertise to deliver cutting-edge medical solutions.

Talking about the recent news of service line integration, expansion of departments lines in Tawam, and how these feed in to SEHA’s overall strategy in delivering healthcare? Dr. Marwan said it fits perfectly as part of SEHA’s future strategy. "We strive to provide our patients with optimum levels of care and introduce new specialties at their facility of choice."

She noted, "SEHA has always prioritised and maintained the healthcare requisites of the UAE community. Ultimately, SEHA reinforced its position, not only as the largest healthcare provider in the UAE, but was also recognised on a global scale for its infrastructure, knowledge, response to the pandemic and expertise."