Emergency medicine in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

It has been a decade since emergency medicine was recognized as a specialty in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this short time, emergency medicine has established itself and developed rapidly in the UAE. Large, well-equipped emergency departments (EDs) are usually located in government hospitals, some of which function as regional trauma centers. Most of the larger EDs are staffed with medically or surgically trained physicians, with board-certified emergency medicine physicians serving as consultants overseeing care.Prehospital care and emergency medical services (EMS) operate under the auspices of the police department. Standardized protocols have been established for paramedic certification, triage, and destination decisions. The majority of ambulances offer basic life support (BLS/Type 2) with a growing minority offering advanced life support (ALS/Type 3).Medicine residency programs were established 5 years ago and form the foundation for training emergency medicine specialists for UAE.This article describes the full spectrum of emergency medicine in the UAE: prehospital care, EMS, hospital-based emergency care, training in emergency medicine, and disaster preparedness. We hope that our experience, our understanding of the challenges faced by the specialty, and the anticipated future directions will be of importance to others advancing emergency medicine in their region and across the globe.

Trauma system developments reduce mortality in hospitalized trauma patients in Al-Ain City, United Arab Emirates, despite increased severity of injury

“…The improved vital signs of injured patients on arrival at the Emergency Department in the second period reflect an overall improvement in EMS pre-hospital care. EMS training and accreditation have expanded and improved in Abu Dhabi Emirate [19].…”

Evolution of emergency medical services in the Kingdom of Bahrain

“…Ambulance staffing follows the Anlo-American model with paramedics (Bachelor's degree) or ambulance nurses, which is similar to regional GCC countries [9,[23][24][25].…”

Together for Emergency Medicine in the United Arab Emirates!

“…Looking at the Emergency Care in the UAE specifically, and the Middle East in general, makes you realize that there have been several genuine regional efforts to develop the specialty over the years, all driven by the needs and pressures of the public. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Although several initiatives have managed to build parts of the system, it was faced by frustrating disconnections from other crucial components that serve the same purpose. A typical example I frequently encountered at the time, was the emergency physicians' frustration from the suboptimal prehospital care which occurred in some cases, and on the opposite side, I also hear the paramedics' teams complaining of their inability to communicate with the Emergency Departments, pre-or post-care.…”