Latifa Hospital’s Dr Muna shares inside story of leading a successful battle against COVID-19

Sajila Saseendran | Senior Reporter

When COVID-19 hit, all hospitals across Dubai, both government and private, rose to the occasion and fought the pandemic successfully to bring the situation under control in the emirate. However, Latifa Hospital in Dubai has a special story about its battle against coronavirus.

In an exclusive interview, CEO Dr Muna Tahlak shared the story of how the hospital for women and children created history by successfully treating pregnant women, new mothers, newborns, other children and even male patients right from the UAE’s first cases of COVID-19.

Being an exclusive healthcare facility for women and children, 70 per cent of patients who visit Latifa Hospital are considered high risk with complicated pregnancies, extreme premature deliveries, children with complications, all requiring speciality care.

When COVID hit initially, more men were presenting with the infection than women and children in the first wave. However, Dr Muna revealed that her hospital had to deal with COVID-19 when the first cases were reported in the UAE.

Dealing with first cases

There were no proper guidelines or treatment protocols for COVID-19 in place at that time. However, Dr Muna said, the infection control team at Rashid Hospital stepped in and coordinated with Latifa Hospital to manage the cases.

“Staff were not even sure how many times they should change the PPE. There was a lot of anxiety as new things kept coming,” Dr Muna recollected.

Admitting men for the first time

In the first wave of the pandemic, when there were a lot of men contracting the infection, many needed hospital admission.

“Rashid Hospital was swarmed with cases. Here, for the first time in the history of Latifa Hospital, we started taking men because they needed beds and we had the beds as initially not many women and kids were infected. So we admitted men and took care of them,” said Dr Muna.

“I have an amazing team who was willing to do whatever was needed to take care of patients—be it men, women or children. Almost 500 men were admitted here during that time,” she disclosed.

Managing the crisis

Emptying a significant number of beds, especially during the first wave, was an important task to give beds to COVID-19 patients, she said.

Delving into the management of the crisis, Dr Muna said the hospital had to “convert rooms into negative pressure, making it suitable even for the patients. We had to decide emptying wards, blocking some clinics, stopping some elective cases.”

“It was really a Dubai thing. The private sector pitched in and joined hands with government hospitals. We could send patients [pregnant women, new mothers and babies] to other facilities where they could be taken care of so we could concentrate on taking care of COVID patients.”

When everyone united in the battle, Dr Muna was not only overseeing Latifa Hospital. She was also involved in treatment and capacity planning at Dubai level, being a team member guiding the emirate’s newly-formed Command and Control Centre for COVID-19.

“I was able to see what was happening across the city.

So all the efforts in planning and making sure that resources were there for whoever needed it, were exceptional, and I must say that Dubai proved to be one of the places that took good care of the people during the pandemic.”

Taking care of the staff

It was not only the patients who were being taken care of. Ample care was extended to the healthcare staff dealing with them as well.

More than 80 per cent of staff members of Latifa Hospital are women.

“The first step that we took was to allow staff who could work remotely to take the distant-working option. These included our pregnant staff, those with comorbidities and certain illnesses, staff of a certain age and above. We did it without even thinking twice and before the HR could tell us what to do.”

“We started doing our scheduling. When we reduced clinic hours and our elective theatres, that meant we could spare some staff. Before the need for these staff to go to other places [when there was a demand later], we were doing less hours in the hospitals, relieving because we knew the storm would come.”

Direct contacts

Special arrangements were also made for healthcare professionals directly dealing with COVID-19 patients.

“We arranged special accommodation for them in hotels so they don’t have to go back to their families fearing they will pass on infection. It was given especially to the nurses and doctors taking care of and in direct contact with COVID patients.”

However, the staff members were not entirely free of infection.

“We have around 1,200 staff in the hospital. I would say one third [of them] at some point had the infection until we started vaccinating them by the end of December 2020 and early January this year,” Dr Muna revealed.

Some staff members lost their loved ones to the deadly virus. “Unfortunately, we also had two staff members who lost their husbands.”

When employees or their family members were infected, there was additional pressure, Dr Muna recollected.

“Since we couldn’t visit them, we kept calling to check on them to know whatever they needed and also to support their families.”

She said it was also time for psychologists at the hospital, who treat patients, to take care of the staff also by providing them with mental and emotional support that they needed.

Promoting vaccination

When the vaccination programme started, naturally it went to adult men and non-pregnant women initially due to safety concerns.

“I am proud to say that we were among the first to promote and push for vaccination in pregnant women when it was found that it was safe. A lot of pregnant women took the vaccine. Some women took the vaccine and got immediately pregnant.”

Dr Muna said the hospital opened a special clinic to follow up on the vaccinated women during pregnancy and to relieve their anxiety and fear about the vaccine causing any harm to them or their unborn babies.

“Promoting vaccines was extremely important, especially among women who are pregnant, from second trimester onwards and breastfeeding women. This is something that Latifa Hospital took a lead on as we know women always fear for their children.”

“Pregnant women fear taking simple medications, let alone a new vaccine that has come out with a new technology. It is a natural fear that every pregnant woman or breastfeeding woman has, that it will harm their baby. Our OBS/Gyn physicians did a great role in allaying their fears and concerns and busting rumours and myths.”

Being a medical doctor specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology herself, Dr Muna said in her capacity as a team member of the Command and Control Centre, she also worked to ensure that there were adequate resources in the city to cater to the patients and to ensure that the treatment they were getting is the correct one.

“It was important for everyone to be on the same page. As things evolve, you hear about this medication today and the next week, you get a new medication.” To tackle the challenge of ensuring uniform treatment protocols in the hospitals, she said: “We formed a team that goes around different hospitals, checking and making sure that people are following updated guidelines. We also did webinars on Dubai level to educate physicians around the city as new guidelines were coming up.”

With close to nil cases in the hospital these days, Dr Muna is grateful for the joint efforts taken by the healthcare workers at her hospital and other entities who have been successful in bending the curve in the pandemic.