Salmaniya Medical Complex ‘drastically cuts surgery waiting time’

TDT | Manama                  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com  

Staff Reporter

In a rare feat, the Surgery Department within the Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) has drastically cut the surgery waiting time for patients after successfully implementing various mechanisms.

According to Dr Ahmed Al Ansari, the Chief Executive Officer of Government Hospitals, the department carried out 1,648 surgeries in the month of September against 1,483 in August.

“This included 21 dental and maxillofacial surgeries, 383 general surgeries, 317 orthopedic surgeries, 24 vascular surgeries, 22 neurological surgeries, 111 ear and nose surgeries, 136 obstetrics and gynecology surgeries, 116 urology surgeries, 94 pediatric surgeries, 47 burns and plastic surgeries, 14 kidney transplant surgeries, 264 laparoscopic procedures, 14 anesthesia procedures, and 85 eye surgeries.”

The state-of-the-art surgeries performed recently at the hospital include successful operation on a 23-year-old male patient diagnosed with a rare fluid-filled tumor in the brain; successful kidney transplant surgeries, and many pediatric surgeries involving correction of anatomic anomalies.

The Daily Tribune earlier reported about alleged long queues that were creating an unending ordeal for patients at the Kingdom’s largest hospital. Sources said some patients had to wait up to five hours at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) emergency unit where a doctor attended the case.

The sources would point out that the waiting periods are quite longer during the nights, attributing the crisis to shortage of adequate staff at the unit. “Two days before, I took a patient who suffered from serious back pain to the SMC emergency unit. He was in a miserable condition, which is hard to describe, unable to walk or sit.

I must say that the nurses and the staff at the unit were very caring and cooperative, but the queue to reach the doctor was too long, worsening the predicament,” a source told The Daily Tribune. “We had to wait nearly six hours to reach the doctor, who seemed heavily exhausted after attending many patients in a stretch.

During this waiting period, we could see many serious patients coming in, and joining the queue although they needed urgent attention,” he explained. On the flip side, another source said one major reason behind the long queues are non-emergency patients who report at the unit as emergency patients, irresponsibly creating a burden on the system. Recently, a special team was constituted at SMC to handle accident and emergency cases.

“The team aims to provide the highest levels of support and care in the Accident and Emergency Department in order to manage the medical needs of all patients and improve workflow, in addition to providing direct assistance to patients.

“Every patient has to access the best treatment facilities and teams of doctors and nurses will be offering the best of services in line with the Kingdom’s health policies.” The SMC has a busy Accident and Emergency department , which are intended to help people who have had trauma or acute surgical or medical problems.

The Emergency Medical Services was developed in 1985 within the Department of Accident and Emergency at Salmaniya Medical Center to provide pre-hospital emergency medical care services to the sick and injured patients by Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), paramedics, at the sense and during transportation to the hospital.