Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), managed by Cleveland Clinic, has announced it will offer regular evening hours at some of its busiest clinics and expand the service to others.

SKMC is part of the Seha HealthSystem and is owned and operated by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha), which is responsible for the curative activities of all the public hospitals and clinics in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

“Adult cardiology, general pediatrics and internal medicine clinics are some of our busiest, and we wanted to ensure that vulnerable Abu Dhabi residents are cared for and have access to our facility in the evenings – when it may be more convenient for them,” said Dr Abdulmajeed Al Zubaidi, chief medical officer, SKMC.

SKMC rolled out preliminary evening clinics on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4pm until 8pm, following increasing demand in 2012. Overall the 14 outpatient specialty clinics recorded more than 210,000 patient visits in 2012, representing an increase of as much as 19 per cent in some clinics.

“Our motto is ‘Patients First’ and this is something SKMC embodies in practice. The flexible clinic timing ultimately means faster and better access to the clinics overall, and will ensure we provide the best care to our patients,” added Benjamin Frank, chief operating officer, SKMC.

The evening clinics initiative has been very well received by the patients and families who often prefer to visit clinics after working hours. Accordingly, SKMC has expanded its evening hours to additional clinics to help better serve the patients’ needs, to include pediatric and adult subspecialties and surgical specialties such as orthopedics and ophthalmology, where there is tremendous need.

“Offering evening clinics is a critical component of our strategy to improve access and is a continuation of previous SKMC’s efforts. Along the same line, we started offering Saturday clinics over a year ago which helped improve appointments for new patients who otherwise would have to wait much longer,” continued Dr Al Zubaidi.

Saturday clinics are provided by a multitude of specialties that have access difficulties and long appointment waiting time and results of this initiative have proven to be very positive, a statement said. – TradeArabia News Service