The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has signed a contract with South Korea’s Bobath Memorial Hospital for the technical management of the Dubai Rehabilitation Centre.

Qadhi Saeed Al Murooshid, director-general of DHA, said: “We wanted to ensure that we provide a stand-alone centre for rehabilitation that caters to the needs of the population of Dubai.”

“The centre will offer a full spectrum of rehabilitative services for patients who have undergone any kind of trauma or surgery and to geriatric patients.

“Rehabilitation is essential to ensure that we can restore the patient’s functional abilities and enhance their quality of life so that they can be easily reintegrated into society.”

Al Murooshid said the centre, located in Al Safa II, which will be inaugurated in the near future is of vital importance because it is a short-stay centre that has all the necessary rehabilitation facilities under one roof.

Al Murooshid said that the cost of the centre and equipment is Dh44 million ($11.97 million) and that the centre includes a gym, hydro-therapy pools, several treatment rooms, a lounge and well manicured lawns to create a pleasant healing environment.

He said that the primary goal of the centre will be to specialise in providing immediate rehabilitative services which will help patients achieve their optimum level of function.

“We are pleased to have outsourced the technical management of the Dubai Rehabilitation Centre to Bobath Memorial Hospital which has a long and successful experience in physical rehabilitation medicine.”

Al Murooshid highlighted that the DHA looked at several hospitals and rehabilitative systems across various countries and finally selected the Bobath Memorial Hospital one due to its long standing experience and expertise in the field.

Khalid Al Sheikh Mubarak, deputy director-general at the DHA, added: “Bobath Memorial Hospital incorporates both European and Far Eastern experience into its rehabilitative programs, which will best suit the needs of our population. The quality and expertise of the hospital in this field was the main reason behind selecting this hospital.”

Dr Sung-Min Park, chief director of the Bobath Memorial Hospital said: “As per the contract, we will be managing the medical and therapeutic services in the centre. We will also provide training to DHA physiotherapists on the Bobath therapeutic concepts which we practice.”

Dr Mohammed Ali Al Swaini, acting director of the Dubai Rehabilitation Centre said: “This centre will provide all rehabilitative services to people aged 14 years and above.

“We will provide treatment for sub-acute patients, this means patients who have undergone any kind of trauma, surgery etc, have undergone treatment at the hospital and are stabilised but need rehabilitation to ensure optimum quality of life. Moreover, the centre will cater to all kinds of neurological cases.”

Currently DRC has a capacity to treat 30 in-patients and 80 to 120 out-patients per day.

Al Swaini said that the team that will manage the medical and therapeutic services for the DRC will consist of doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, hydrotherapists, speech therapists, physiologists and nutritionists.

The medical specialties will include neurology, psychology, geriatric, internal medicine and physiology as well as a prosthetics unit.

The paramedical services provided will include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, hydrotherapy, pharmacy and dietary counselling. – TradeArabia News Service