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19 March 2024

Stay out of ICUs: Dubai Twitter clinic's top tips

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By Majorie van Leijen

Patients who are committed to managing their disease are less likely to visit hospitals and this could benefit Intensive Care Units in particular, advised Twitter Clinic of the Dubai Health Authority.

The weekly DHA Twitter clinic, which invites doctors to bring to the attention-specific health related issues in an interactive two-hour long Twitter session, dedicated this Thursday morning to the topic of critical care management.

Zainab Obaida, Specialist Senior Registrar, medical ICU at Dubai Hospital, shared her knowledge about some important aspects of critical care management.

“Patients who are admitted to ICU have multiple problems caused by a disease. If they manage their primary disease we can reduce ICU admission,” she pointed out.

In Dubai, every hospital must house at least one Intensive Care Unit. The number of beds per critical care services is based on factors such as the type of services provided in the hospital, bed occupancy rate, etc.

However, each hospital should provide one critical care bed for each operation theater, and the capacity should not be less than one critical care bed for every 20 general beds, according to the DHA regulations.

Therefore, an effective use of the capacity of a hospitals’ criticare care unit(s) is important.

Chronic diseases are of particular challenge to the UAE society. While cardiac diseases and cancer are among some of the most common causes of death, the country faces one of the highest rates of diabetes prevalence.

Although chronic diseases may not be cured, a proper management is required to avoid serious complications, for which a patient would need to seek intensive care.

Take diabetes, for example. Diabetics are at higher risk to develop skin infections, skin disorders, glaucoma, cataracts and other eye problems, and several types of nerve damage; complications that could be avoided by proper disease management.

“Diabetics should closely monitor their skin, urinary tract infections or chest infection as it can progress into something more complicated, said Obaida. Further, diabetes patients must take care of their feet and avoid wounds, she added.

Similarly, cardiac patients ought to comply with their medication and diet, and live a healthy lifestyle to stay away from the ICU. Careful monitoring of blood pressure and sugar levels are of utmost important to them, as these are indicators of the occurrence of complications that could lead to admission to an ICU, said Obaida.

It is not only the chronic disease patient who are advised to take up levels of self-management; other diseases require a similar approach. To mention a few, Obaida pointed out that patients on dialysis should ensure they do not miss their dialysis sessions so as to avoid fluid accumulation, which in turn would lead to ICU admission.

People with chronic lung diseases, or immunocomprised patients should never ignore minor health problems such as cough, cold or sore throat.
The ICU of a hospital is one of the most crucial departments, where patients from all other departments may land up if the treatment required is critical, explains Obaid.

“Cases include patients with low or high blood pressure, respiratory problems, acute kidney problems, nervous system, cardiac problems, etc.

“In Dubai Hospital the ratio of patient to nurses in ICU is 1:1 because these patients need to be constantly monitored. Further, patients in the ICU are assessed by nutritionists, physiotherapists, nurses and doctors,” she added.