One thing that I’ve learned in life is that when you do something good, no one remembers; and if one thing goes bad, everyone searches and waits for that moment where they could talk about it and spread out the word to the rest. Whether it was the national team losing, a bad customer service, or even a hospital that mistreated their patients.
Let’s take a moment and rewind 5 years back, when the UAE team won the final match of the Gulf Cup. I vividly remember how everyone was happy, everyone cheered, even those who didn’t have a slight idea about what football is. Now, let’s rewind a few weeks ago when the UAE team lost the Asian World Cup Qualifiers? Now notice the difference between how people reacted in both situations. Anyway, This is an example used on how people would praise you for something good for a very short period of time, but on the other hand they would also beat you up with your failure for a very long period of time. This is something that we could never change, but we could avoid giving them a reason to do so.
Going back to the main point, which is the healthcare in the UAE. Looking at the hospitals, the systems, the buildings, or even the equipments; the UAE has come very far. Yet, so many people still choose to go overseas when it comes to serious health related situations, whether they choose to go to the States, Far East Europe, or any other spot in the world. The first thing you hear from a person who’s concerned about his health is “I think I’m going to travel as soon as I can to have a full checkup.”
Could we take the time, stop, and think why that is? As I said earlier, we managed to have the best buildings, latest equipments; the doctors here are all well trained with a certificate from some of the best med schools in the world. But no, the reason behind the mistrust people have towards our healthcare isn’t because all of this, it’s because of one thing that people fail to realize it until today. Which is the lack of focusing on the management part of the hospital. Whether it was a school, a nursery, a business, or the main thing we’re talking about which are hospitals; if the base of it all, the management isn’t there. Then what is everything else relying on? What is everything else based on? A lot of people might not agree to this, and to be honest 2 years ago, if someone gave me this and asked me to agree with it. I wouldn’t as well. For one specific reason that is the fact that I don’t know how important a management is to a hospital and the difference that it would make.
A lot of the developed countries have realized this issue and that is one of the main reasons why today, they have decided to let hospital management education focuses on health care management as an independent factor that is intergraded with medical doctors who decided to be in management.
Today, the UAE has also found a way to make this factor a main one and it is also treated as in independent major for the sake of a better healthcare tomorrow.
* This blog post is inspired by my father, a man who managed to make a difference in the “management” of the healthcare field.