Rashid Hospital in Dubai, UAE, recently opened a dedicated in-patient gastroenterology unit, said a top health official.

Gastroenterology is a branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. Diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract, which include the organs from mouth to anus, along the alimentary canal, are the focus of this specialty.

Dr Ahmad Bin Kalban, CEO of hospital services sector at the DHA, said: “ At the DHA, it is our aim to ensure our hospitals provide comprehensive care across all specialties and this unit will benefit gastroenterology patients that visit Rashid Hospital.”

Dr Alya Saif Al Mazrouei, CEO of Rashid Hospital, said: “The move is in line with our vision to provide high-quality healthcare across all specialties. The hospital receives a high number of gastroenterology cases every year and the expansion will help provide comprehensive in-patient gastroenterology services to our patients.”

Dr Sameer Al Awadhi, head of digestive diseases unit at Rashid Hospital, said: “ The expansion increases the number of in-patient beds from 6 to 19, which is important given the high volume of patients the unit receives. On a yearly basis, the hospital conducts more than 7,000 gastroenterology procedures, these include in-patient and out-patient procedures.”

He added the in-patient services include all cases of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, liver disease, etc. while the out-patient services include endoscopy, colonoscopy, anddouble-balloon enteroscopy.

Dr Al Awadhi added that the out-patient endoscopy rooms will also be increased from three to five in the near future.

He said the hospital receives patients from Dubai as well as from the Northern Emirates and several private sector referral cases. - TradeArabia News Service