New medical clinics to serve Abu Dhabi's most remote desert communities

Some residents have to drive for an hour to see a doctor or medical professional

Nine new primary care clinics will be built in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. AFP

Six new primary care clinics are set to be built in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain to improve access to health services for the  more remote communities.

The state-of-the-art facilities will serve villagers in Al Wathba and Shakhbout City in Abu Dhabi as well as seven districts of Al Ain.

This week, Australian health care provider Aspen Medical announced it would build and operate the clinics, which will also serve as community centres.

Experts said medics would work as “gatekeepers” for patients, ensuring anyone — where required — was directed on to appropriate specialists for treatment.

“In some of the areas you need to get in a car for 20 minutes to reach the nearest health care facility — in others you need over an hour,” said Neil Clark, a director at the Department of Health Abu Dhabi.

“Aspen Medical was up for the test [as] they have done similar projects in Australia and other parts of the world.”

The six clinics — which will serve about 31,000 people — are anticipated to be up and running in about nine months.

Apart from the Abu Dhabi centres, facilities will serve the areas of Umm Ghaffa, Al Dhafra, Al Araad, Abu Karayyah, Abu Samarah, Al Saad and Al Salamat.

Over recent weeks, representatives from Aspen Medical have been visiting the clinic sites to help assess patient needs.

Construction is scheduled to start in the next few days, with clinics ready to receive patients in September next year.

Bruce Armstrong, Aspen Medical’s group chief executive, said the company had given “a lot of thought” to how best to integrate with local communities.

“They [representatives] went down to visit and identify with the population [as] it is key to have patient engagement from the very start,” he said.

“We have an Emirati who will helping us with exactly that. Key to the success of this particular project is communication with the community.”

Sudeep Acharya, general manager of Aspen Medical, said provision of primary care facilities would speed up treatment for patients in more remote regions.

“Through our engagement with the community we have found that many members are going directly to a specialist,” he said.

“Like, if somebody has pain in the chest they go to a cardiologist, only to find it was a small pain in the muscle.”

He  sometimes larger hospitals insisted on a range of tests that were not always necessary.

The clinics would be more focused, he suggested, ensuring patients were only referred to specialists where necessary.

Mr Acharya gave the example of his wife who underwent numerous tests “that were totally unnecessary” for over a month after experiencing pain in her chest.

He said the issue was eventually resolved through a simple discussion with her doctor.

“They could have easily figured out from the start that she had a torn ligament from lifting our three-year-old son,” he said.