Future became clear once the fog had lifted

In 2008, a massive pile-up on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway which killed four people and injured hundreds in what was later dubbed Fog Tuesday, served as a springboard for improvement in emergency medicine.

ABU DHABI // Six years ago a blanket of fog descended on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai motorway during morning rush-hour leading to a 200-vehicle pile-up that left four dead, 350 injured and 20 cars on fire.

The accident, later dubbed Fog Tuesday, was blamed on poor visibility and careless driving, but was also one of several mass-casualty accidents that helped to identify deficiencies within the system and the need for coordination in the aftermath of large-scale accidents.

It sparked a series of improvements.

“Fog Tuesday was an alarm for emergency medicine professionals in UAE and many things changed after that,” said Dr Magdi Mohamed, a specialist in emergency medicine at Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi.

“It made us ask the question, are we prepared to deal with a disaster?

“In its aftermath, Abu Dhabi’s disaster management centre was established. Hospitals started making disaster preparation programmes.”

Dr Salah Fares, consultant and acting head of the accident and emergency department at Zayed Military Hospital, said disasters – man-made such as car crashes and natural ones, including earthquakes, floods, and tropical storms – have made medicine and emergency management growing priorities for UAE hospitals.

It was in 2000 that hospital administrators in Abu Dhabi and Dubai began to recruit emergency medicine-trained physicians, said Dr Fares, in a study addressing the development of emergency medicine. “Prior to that time, emergency medical treatment was provided in A&E in public hospitals, which were staffed by general medical officers trained in medical or surgical disciplines.

“These physicians would refer cases to specialists for their opinion and treatment. Multi-system complaints would generate a number of referrals.

“Responsibility for care often fell between these specialists, causing long length of stays in the A&E.”

This structure changed in 2000 with the establishment of an A&E in Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre – the UAE’s largest hospital at the time – where a group of emergency physicians from the West oversaw care, said Dr Fares.

In 2006, Dubai’s Rashid Hospital trauma and emergency centre opened its doors and followed suit. Several emergency departments in the larger hospitals across the country have since adopted similar models.