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Dubai: Hospitals and clinics under the Ministry of Health will be connected under a network by 2011, with two medical centres going online next year, to improve medical care and ensure patient safety.
Wareed, the health information system launched on Tuesday, will link 14 hospitals and 68 clinics in the northern emirates. The network promises to provide instantaneous access to medical records and patient history, among other things.
Humaid Al Qutami, Minister of Health, told the Press he would help centres within or outside the ministry to quickly receive the necessary information to save lives.
"Information from Dubai can be accessed from anywhere. It doesn't have to be within the UAE. For example, if today a patient has an accident in Bangkok, we can just send the information to the hospital there," he said.
Support services
He added the system would also help prevent medical and pharmaceutical errors as the patient's medical history would be mapped out in the system. Hybrid Health Solutions (HHS), which will be responsible for implementing the system, says the network would cut medical errors by 70 per cent.
Under the implementation plan, a hospital and a clinic will go online with Wareed by June 2009.
Dr Salem Al Darmaki, CEO of support services at the ministry, told Gulf News the ministry was in the process of selecting the two centres. "We will have one pilot hospital and one pilot primary healthcare centre to try out the system," he said.
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