Hospital staff in the Northern Emirates opt for big-city salaries

Northern healthcare chiefs agree with FNC members on lack of nurses and specialists outside Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

A lack of nursing staff, psychiatrists and too few specialists are major issues for health care in the Northern Emirates, hospital staff say.

Salaries and lifestyle in the Northern Emirates are not as attractive to staff as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, said Ahmad Al Hafiti, deputy chief executive of Al Sharq Hospital.

Mr Al Hafiti spoke after Federal National Council members on Tuesday questioned the Minister of Health, Abdul Rahman Al Owais, about shortfalls in the healthcare system in the Northern Emirates.

The minister was asked to visit hospitals to see the problems, which members said included expensive medicine and insufficient services for psychiatric patients, first-hand.

“We face a problem with assigning doctors to work in Fujairah as most of them prefer to work in Dubai or Abu Dhabi for higher salaries, therefore you can’t find all the specialties in the area,” Mr Al Hafiti said.

“Lack of nursing staff is an international issue, not only here, but we do our best to keep our nursing team satisfied to keep them with us.”

He said mental health treatment was very important and each hospital should have at least one psychiatrist.

“Many patients need a psychiatrist after undergoing some major life-threatening surgeries. It is an important specialty and, unfortunately, we have only one – at Fujairah Hospital – who covers all the area.

“Most of the time we face an issue with the number of ICU rooms. If we couldn’t provide immediate care to an ICU patient due to a lack of rooms we transfer them to Fujairah Hospital, where they have the same problem.”

Aisha Ahmad, director of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Women’s Hospital for Maternity and Children in Ajman, agreed that nurse and specialist numbers were problems.

“We need around 10 per cent more nurses and more specialist doctors,” Ms Ahmad said. “There’s a lack of availability of doctors in these fields in the labour market.”

A successful candidate for Kalba in this week’s Sharjah Consultative Council election said more centres had to be built.

“Kalba needs more private hospitals and clinics to be able to handle the needs of the area,” said Mohammed Al Darmaki. “My work in the consultative council will include working on bringing investors to our region and enhancing the quality of health services.”

In Sharjah city, a new accident and emergency building is due to open this month at Al Qassimi Hospital. The project was launched after complaints of long waiting times.

Dr Safeyah Al Khajah, Al Qassimi’s technical director, said the new centre would reduce patient waiting times and have enough doctors and nurses to cope with demand.

Meanwhile, patients agreed that some medicine was too expensive.

Nuha Rashed, 33, an Emirati who lives in Fujairah, said that although she had two health insurance cards from different providers, she still had to pay for medicine.

“Each time I visit the doctor I find one or two medicines not covered by the insurance, although I have two types of insurance – one from my work and the other from my husband’s work,” Ms Rashed said.

“Last week, I took my six-year-old child to the doctor and he prescribed her cough medicine, but the insurance didn’t cover it.

“It’s not easy to get an appointment at the public hospital, so I prefer to go to the private one, especially to see the dentist.”

But Mariam Ibrahim, a Lebanese housewife who has lived in Ajman for 15 years, said she was happy with the services provided at Sheikh Khalifa Hospital.

“My husband has diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol,” Ms Ibrahim said. “I always take him to Khalifa Hospital where all medical specialists are available, in addition to the excellent care and attention from doctors and nurses.”