DUBAI - The Dubai Centre for Ambulance Services will introduce three ‘bus hospitals’ with intensive care units by early next year to significantly reduce the time taken to give medical attention to victims of road accidents.
The ‘mass
casualty buses’ will feature an operation theatre and seating for people with
minor injuries for treatment as they are ferried to hospitals.
Currently,
critical patients are airlifted to nearby hospitals by the Dubai Police Air Wing
helicopters or transported by ambulance.
The
introduction of the buses to the existing ambulance fleet comes at a time when
Dubai's roads have witnessed major accidents in the recent times — the worst
being the collision of over 150 vehicles that killed four people and injured
over 317 others on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway in March this year.
To be made
operational under the Dubai Centre for Ambulance Services, the two 12-metre long
solo models and the 18-metre articulated bus will be equipped with several
medical features including intensive care units. An official from the ambulance
centre said the buses will be used only during emergencies, but refused to
divulge details. Currently, the centre has a fleet of over 80 ambulances
distributed in 51 points of Dubai police stations, hospitals, primary health
centres, shopping centres, tourist sites and the Dubai International Airport.
The buses will be designed using two different purpose-built layouts.
One of
them could carry 15 patients and would have an operation theatre and room for
additional 10 passenger seats for slightly injured people, explained Abdul Aziz
Al Midfa, chairman of Cytomed Middle East, a supplier of emergency medical
services (EMS) equipment and services which include consultancy, products and
trainings in the EMS field and disaster management to the ambulance centre.
Another
type of bus could carry up to 38 patients and would have seven intermediate care
units, an intensive care unit, and up to 30 passenger seats for slightly injured
people.
The 18
metre-long articulate version will create a space suitable for 29 patients, 12
intermediate care units, two intensive care units, an operation theatre, and 14
seats for the slightly injured. Each bus will also have extra room allocated for
paramedics, medical equipment storage, X-ray machines and stretchers.
Says Al
Midfa: “One of the advantages is that they can work as a complete mobile
hospital unit when placed in the same vicinity, or they can each be positioned
in different areas within Dubai for maximum effectiveness.”
An EMS
German consultant, Dr Martin von Berg, will conduct a full disaster management
training programme through different simulated scenarios where the the buses'
capabilities would be highlighted. He would familiarise the staff on how to
operate these units before they are introduced.