Page 291 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Sevan

Medical facilities
In 1949 an Indian Muslim, Dr Muhammad Yasin, practising in Dubai,
who had been employed by the British Government in India , was
succeeded by Colonel D. McCaully, a doctor who had retired from the
Indian Army. Dr McCaully was engaged by the British Government
to run the first hospital on the Trucial Coast (the Maktum Hospital,
opened in 1950 with 30 beds), built in Dubai for the benefit of the
population of all the Trucial Slates. The cost of the initial building
with 38 beds and the cost of a doctor were borne by the British
Government; the running costs were shared among all the Rulers of
the Trucial Stales, the biggest share being paid by the Ruler of
Dubai.40 All the Rulers were members of the Al Maktum Hospital
Committee.47
The impact which the development of the health services has had
on the quality of life in the City Slate for almost every one of its
residents is illustrated by the fact that before the Second World War
a sick person who needed modern medical help had to travel by boat
to India, which few inhabitants of Dubai could afford. Now people
travel to Dubai from neighbouring countries to obtain treatment in
the Rashid Hospital. Yet a large hospital does not provide the full
answer to health care among the local and immigrant communities
whose health problems were and sometimes still are the result of
draughty homes, indigenous pests, and a lack of appreciation of
hygiene.
In parallel with the building of hospitals all the other aspects of a
modern health service were being attended to. The government of
Dubai, the Trucial States Council and international agencies such
as the World Health Organisation organised mass vaccination,40
regular checks on school children, and public health education
programmes; the municipality improved on rubbish collection,
pest control and food-handling standards in the market and the
slaughterhouse; and eventually the new media, radio, television, and
newspapers, were used to instil an awareness of the causes and the
remedies of ill-health. In the planning of health care facilities in
Dubai it was essential to take into consideration the structure of the
society and the difference in attitude between the local and the
various immigrant communities. Even after the well-equipped
Rashid Hospital was opened,49 many people still preferred to go to
the old-established, centrally-located, smaller Maktum Hospital or to
an outpatient clinic built in the centre of Dubai. During the 1970s
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