The only human intervention needed in the release of medicines within 30 seconds is the command from the terminal. Kamal Kassim/Gulf Today

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

A leading hospital group in the UAE has upgraded its Dubai facilities to help address the observed increase in cardiac cases and lifestyle-related diseases.

With the upgrade is the enhancement of its pharmacy services through the installation of a robotic system that error-free dispenses medicines within 30 seconds from the time the requisition has been logged in the database by a pharmacist.

The robot is programmed in such a way that it shelves fast/slow-moving items accordingly. Manpower comes in only in cases of malfunction until the stand-by technical people rectify the disruption.

On Wednesday when Gulf Today toured the annex of the Zulekha Hospital-Dubai, operational since Dec. 2018, Group managing director Taher Shams, in response to the question regarding the consequent need for more highly-qualified and trained human resources, said: “We are constantly upgrading systems and recruiting experienced experts from diverse backgrounds as we need to service patients from diverse nationalities in the UAE.”

“We also cater to patients who travel from as far as the US and Europe as well as the neighbouring regions like the Middle East and North Africa for super-specialised high-risk treatments,” he also said.

An addition of 100 clinical and non-clinical staff had been hired raising the manpower to 1,069: “This number will continue to rise.”

The upgrade and annex to the hospital in Al Nahda, Dubai began three years back, continues.

A source said ongoing is the retrofitting of a dedicated radiation therapy centre for the other non-communicable disease—cancer—which has been observed to spike in the region not only by the health professionals and authorities but also by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Shams said: “We reported showing a 13 per cent increase year-on-year of cardiac problems between 2017 and 2018, so we are making a huge effort to reduce this number. Our goal is to help make the UAE a super hub for critical care, which is equipped with additional cathlabs and the latest technology in cardiac care. The first open heart procedure was successfully carried out this April for a 38-year-old patient.”

He cited WHO records showing that heart diseases to be the “biggest killers in the Middle East; 30 per cent of which are “in the UAE alone” and which UAE Vision 2021 targets to reduce alongside other death-causing lifestyles.