ABU DHABI // A wedding hall in a remote coastal town is to be turned into a temporary hospital for a week.
Al Marfa'a - halfway between the capital and the Saudi border, population 15,000 - is the next target in a campaign by the Red Crescent to bring specialist health care to the farthest flung corners of the country.
As part of the RCA's comprehensive humanitarian aid programme, which runs from October 12 to 18, the wedding hall will be divided into small clinics that will test and treat patients on the spot. Specialists will be available in internal medicine, ear-nose-throat, ophthalmology, paediatrics, dermatology, osteopathy and breast cancer. Dr Ibrahim Suleiman, head of medical care at the RCA, said: "A group of doctors went there to discover what is needed. We went to al Marfa'a hospital and carried out a comprehensive study on the services that are unavailable in comparison with the people's needs. Some services, such as paediatrics and ophthalmology, don't exist at all."
The most prominent health problems the team found were diabetes, thalassaemia and high blood pressure. Complicated cases diagnosed at the temporary clinics will be referred to the RCA's team of specialists at the main hospital. Mohammed al Mazroei, the head of the RCA's Western Region branch, said the authority's team had been surveying the area since May, and had also identified needy families to whom it can distribute aid such as food and medical supplies. The budget for the campaign and the number of people it can help are unlimited.
Mohamed al Hammadi, deputy general secretary for local programmes at the RCA, said: "All services will be provided free of charge to nationals and residents. Patients who require more treatment after the campaign is over will have their expenses covered by the RCA as well." The authority will also pay any extra charges incurred by patients whose expenses exceed their insurance limit. "We can also help those who do not have insurance to apply for it," Mr al Hamadi said.
In addition to health services, the campaign will include awareness and social programmes, and safety training courses in sea rescue and first aid. "There are 120 women registered for the first aid. It is greatly needed, as the women there don't know how to stop simple bleeding. Sea rescue is also important since the main profession there is fishing," Dr Suleiman said. "The most important part of this campaign is educating the people, because you don't know how many patients you will be able to help. But awareness and education will benefit all the 15,000 people living there," he said.
The campaign is sponsored by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, the Ruler's Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of the Red Crescent Authority. The RCA ran a similar campaign last April on Delma Island. Al Sela'a, also in Al Gharbia, is next on the list, and other areas across the UAE will follow. "We are in the process of surveying all the emirates to carry out such campaigns worth billions of dirhams. Sheikh Hamdan is personally following this. Most probably in 2011, we will see projects in the Northern Emirates," Mr al Hamadi said.
The campaigns began after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, called for strengthening national and social bonding on the 38th National Day last year. "After the campaign in Delma, the officials there learnt from the things the RCA did and started adding more services themselves," Mr al Hamadi said.
"We are starting a new era of humanitarian work; we conduct a comprehensive study and survey of the area's needs and then send our aid. The problem with the Western Region is that the cities are too far from each other. Between one and the other there is a minimum of 120 kilometres … so we will travel to them."
