MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

      I have the singular privilege of being associated with this department as its medical director/chairman at a time when it is going through a drastic transformation. During the past years, a lot of progressive changes have evolved. Some of these positive changes include its transformation into an academic department. This further expanded the department’s primary mandate of rendering fast efficient emergency care to our patients, and to provide a scientifically conducive educational environment for all trainee and also motivated us to invest more effort in undergraduate and postgraduate training in addition to expanding our frontier in research.

       Due to the strong confidence we have built, Our DEM has been and being over-flooded with high number of patients. To this end, the University has agreed with the proposal to expand the DEM in order to meet with the ever increasing demand of our community. We have met concerted efforts to install a more suitable environment in the new DEM.

      To the nurses care in particular, I have always held the view that nurses are the necessary pivot around which any hospital could effectively revolve and function. They have endured to accommodate patients on the hallways and corridor in the face of imbalance in the nurse-patient ratio, and sometimes, outside the established scope of their practice. The pilot sponsorship of nurses to the advanced trauma care for nurses ATCN & PALS have paid good dividend as most of them who attended the courses have passed.

       EMS services have been re-invigorated under the leadership of EMS Director, and they deserve our commendations. They have lived up to their responsibility of responding to calls from the housing, the university, and quite often from accident scenes. Their services at the main door as well as their complementary involvement in resuscitations within the department have been highly appreciated. In view of the dynamics of the operations of this unit, we intend to further develop it well enough to live up to the societal expectations.

We will continue to support the staff to partake in relevant courses and training.  

   Finally, I wish to recognize the unrivalled contribution of the Dean of medical college, professor Musaed Al Salman, both in the day-to-day smooth administration as well as for his wisdom and supporting efforts. The department and the specialty owe him a lot for this.

Dr. Zohair Al Aseri FRCPC EM & CCM

Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine