The 350-bed Fakeeh University Hospital – part of Fakeeh Care in Saudi Arabia – has recently opened in Dubai’s Silicon Oasis. Middle East Health speaks to Dr David Saxton, the Chief Medical and Clinical Officer, about the hospital.
Middle East Health: Can you tell us a bit about the hospital set-up?
Dr David Saxton: Fakeeh University Hospital (FUH) is a four-building institute equipped with advanced operating theatres, radiology, and diagnostics. It has the largest private sector emergency department in Dubai. We have a total capacity of 13 operating rooms – 12 standard operating rooms and an additional one situated within the Women’s Health Unit for childbirth and emergencies. In addition to that, our hospital also features one of the largest laboratories in Dubai.
FUH has 350 inpatient beds, three Intensive Care Units, including a paediatric ICU and a neonatal ICU. The hospital also has a total capacity for 55 outpatient clinics.
Middle East Health: What are the key specialties that the hospital will focus on?
Dr David Saxton: As a University Hospital, we must provide all the core services that one would typically find in a university hospital, so that all our patients’ healthcare needs can be met. However, looking at the city’s urban plan and the development of new communities in the Dubai Silicon Oasis area and beyond, we are anticipating an increased need for Women and Child Health. As a result, we have established a Women’s Health Unit.
Orthopaedics is also one of our focus areas, and we are looking to establish a
Sports Medicine Academy. Cardiology and Critical Care are also key specialities.
Thanks to our large bed capacity, we have an opportunity to provide a very robust
critical care service. Even though we are a start-up facility, we have a fully operating
Critical Care Ward, which is currently serving Covid-19 patients.
Middle East Health: As a university hospital, which university or universities is FUH affiliated to?
Dr David Saxton: Fakeeh University Hospital is bringing a rather unique experience to the UAE, particularly to the private sector, where both an academic and clinical unit are combined on one campus. Our teaching hospital in Dubai will be affiliated with the Fakeeh College of Medical Sciences, which we established in 2003 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and which has proven to be a very successful model. The vast footprint of Fakeeh Care hospitals and clinics in the Kingdom and our 43-year legacy has taught us how innovation at the heart of care can drive the quality to unparalleled levels. For example, the foundation hospital performed the first IVF in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, bringing several other firsts as well, including the first renal transplant in 1985, and the first heart transplant in 1990. And so, with this strong foundation for innovation we have come to the UAE with this academic model and are already working with the local authorities to have Fakeeh University Hospital identified as a satellite campus for the UAE and wider region.
Middle East Health: So it will serve as a teaching hospital for medical students?
Dr David Saxton: Yes, Fakeeh University Hospital will serve as a teaching hospital, however we will be our own academic entity and will not be implementing a rotation concept where students are rotating from campus to campus.
While our university campus is awaiting development, we have had some preliminary
exploration with other international academic organizations and our College in Jeddah with regards to course curriculum design and development. As we move forward with our university campus, we will be looking at emulating our model in Jeddah to provide undergraduate courses for nursing, medicine, and allied health sciences studies, such as physiotherapy and emergency care training, followed by postgraduate studies.
Fakeeh University Hospital will have a university capacity of up to 3000 students.
Middle East Health: FUH will also serve as a research facility. Can you give us an idea of what research is planned and who will be conducting it?
Dr David Saxton: Our Foundation hospital in Saudi Arabia has been approaching medical research from a different perspective, looking at clinical outcomes, modifying treatments and studying their impact. A lot of the research has also been conducted in the laboratory. For example, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was first discovered in 2012 in a lab at Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital.
Research will be an integral part of Fakeeh University Hospital. Though there will remain a focus on developing new strategies for the COVID and post-COVID eras, we shall continue to pursue the principles of a customised precision approach to clinical management through new technologies and development of multimodal treatment programmes. In essence the research will aim to address the respective needs and challenges of the time and shall be initiated by FUH physicians as well as in partnership with our hospital and college in Jeddah and other academic institutes locally, regionally and internationally.
Middle East Health: Why did Fakeeh Care decide to establish a hospital in Dubai?
Dr David Saxton: Through Fakeeh Care’s operations in Saudi over the past four decades, we have achieved a successful model for care delivery at high international standards, which we decided to export to the UAE. There is no doubt that Dubai has become an international platform with a well established healthcare sector, whether it’s from an infrastructure or talent perspective. However, our market research indicated the need for an institute, bringing together locally and regionally based talent and medical research, underpinned by academia, all under one umbrella.
The UAE healthcare market is rich in diverse providers and specialities, but can also be quite fragmented, whereby many facilities follow a single-focused hospital model, each specializing in few therapy areas. This means however that patients may experience a disruption in their treatment and recovery journey, especially if they need care in other clinical areas that require external expertise. Therefore, we wanted to bring an all-inclusive multidisciplinary care model, founded in academics with primary, secondary and tertiary care across 55 specialities.
Middle East Health: Does Fakeeh Care have other healthcare facilities outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Do they plan to establish others?
Dr David Saxton: Fakeeh University Hospital in Dubai is the first expansion project for the group outside of the Kingdom. Over recent years, Fakeeh Care has received several operational investment requests from the GCC and a number of African countries. However, the focus at present is on our operations in the UAE and KSA.
Middle East Health: The pharmacy has a state-of the-art digital dispensary. Can you tell us about some of the other new digital MedTech at the hospital?
Dr David Saxton: The hospital has one of the largest robotic pharmacies in the UAE that minimizes human errors in dispensing medications, which is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world.
Having an integrated system allows us to track every single tablet, from the point at which it is delivered to the hospital, when it is stored in the pharmacy to the point of care, when it is provided to the patient. This is not just thanks to the robotic pharmacy; it is the result of integration of our overall healthcare information system. This also means the collection of data at every point of care is essential, as it automatically populates the hospital information system. By accessing data in a timely fashion, we are able significantly reduce the chances of medical error.
Fakeeh University Hospital also utilizes its advanced hospital information system to provide real-time connectivity between patients, their families and caregivers
within the hospital and remotely. Our patients shall have direct access through the
website or our mobile App to book their in-hospital, remote or home-care appointments. Within FUH clinical data is automatically integrated into the electronic medical record at the point of care. Telemetry is available throughout the organisation, as indeed will be remote monitoring from the home. Inpatients shall have access to our advanced infotainment system which not only provides access to multimedia and entertainment but direct access to their clinical data and daily care plans, health updates and healthcare education.
Our facility also utilizes some of the most advanced imaging systems available in radiology, as well as technologies for image-guided interventions, cardiac catheterization, and peripheral vascular interventions.
Middle East Health: Staffing a hospital is a challenging task, but is key to providing trusted and quality care. Can you tell us how the hospital approached this challenge and from where you have recruited your doctors and nurses?
Dr David Saxton: When recruiting for our hospital, we looked at physician and nurse leaders within the existing UAE workforce for several reasons. The UAE is home to a lot of clinical talent, which the Emirates have attracted over the years. In addition to that, we were looking for professionals who understood the UAE’s dynamic and multi-cultural environment and who can work together as part of a team.
We handpicked talent based on their experience, integrity, teamwork, social responsibility, patient-focused concept, values of compassion and most importantly accountability. We also looked for that spark of innovation.
As a result of that recruitment hunt, we were able to find clinicians with a proven track record and reputation, who had adjusted to the environment and most importantly who fitted perfectly within the organization. We have been pleasantly
surprised by the relative ease at which we have been able to attract interest from talented healthcare practitioners. We found a very receptive group of clinicians waiting for an organization to give them the opportunity to do things differently.
The key to recruiting successfully from a relatively limited workforce is having a physician-led approach, great core leaders, and the right innovation and philosophy
in place, which then permeates and becomes the norm for the organization.
Middle East Health: As a last word, is there anything you’d like to add?
Dr David Saxton: Fakeeh University Hospital is set to be more than just a hospital; we are bringing a 43-year legacy that champions innovation in all aspects of care delivery. In 2009, we established home healthcare services through our ambulatory homecare visits, even before opening the doors of our hospital, and we are looking to export our Fakeeh Care portfolio of wellness and fitness, medical education, digital health and integrated care.
Furthermore, we have a phased approach that allows us with time to evaluate what the community’s needs are and redefine our capacity planning. This means that we can exploit our 350-bed capacity with some of the space and resources directed towards the development of clinical institutes for sports medicine, neurosciences or a cardiometabolic centre. Our legacy has taught us to shift from the concept of departmentalized services to disease-based services, so that our patients can receive holistic care.
We are also in the process of ensuring Fakeeh University Hospital is recognized as a centre of excellence by numerous international accreditation bodies, such as Planetree, Magnet, the American Society for Health Systems Pharmacists, the College of American Pathologists, ISO and the American Heart Association, amongst others.
• For more information about FUH, visit: https://fuh.care
