• These brave men and women sacrificed their EID to help us celebrate ours

Dubai: This “Airlift” story isn’t about stranded residents and nationals who wanted to leave their country of residence to return to safety and comforts of their loved ones. This is the story about the Covid warriors, leaving the comforts of their native country’s home and the warmth of their loved ones, only to join their duties back and help UAE fight its pandemic. They left their EID to help us celebrate ours, ensuring our safety.

In a heavily planned and a coordinated move, NMC Healthcare – the UAE’s largest private sector healthcare player, have started bringing back its stranded caregivers and covid warriors from India.

Through a chartered 8-seater flight from Mumbai earlier in June, it first flew its lifesavers: a cardiologist, intensivist, critical care and pulmonology expert who, upon arrival, underwent their mandatory quarantine and tests as per national COVID guidelines. 

Dr. Sanjay Rajdev, Consultant Interventional Cardiology at NMC Speciality Hospital, Abu Dhabi, who was one of the passengers on this special chartered flight said, “I find myself incredibly grateful to have been able to come back and save at least two lives. These were two acute heart-attack patients whom I could operate and save.”  

In another flight from India, last week, NMC Healthcare got 49 of its staff including 31 medicos for its hospitals in Dubai : NMC Speciality Hospital, Al Nahda and NMC Royal Hospital, DIP and NMC Day Surgery Centre, Deira. These covid warriors are currently under mandatory quarantine and is expected to join soon.

Today, two special Air Arabia flights from Kochi and Trivandrum landed at Sharjah bringing back 20 critical care team members of NMC Royal Hospital, Sharjah.

Speaking with gratitude for his brave hearts, Michael Brenden Davis, CEO of NMC Healthcare, said, “The staff wanted to come back and serve their patients in these trying and testing times. Accomplishing this required an incredible amount of coordination and logistics with multiple regulatory approvals.”

Michael continued, “We worked in tandem with the various regulatory and approving bodies and the ease and speed with which the two regulatory bodies of healthcare and the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) processed the approvals, was truly incredible.”

India and UAE Cooperation

After the private sector healthcare groups in the UAE had approached the authorities seeking special permission to fly back their stranded healthcare workers from India, some providers have been given special approvals.

Last year in May, the UAE sent an Emirates aid plane containing seven tonnes of medical supplies to India to 7,000 medical staff there while DP World organized for medical oxygen whilst India was struggling with 600 percent rise in its demand for the same.

More flights 

In next one week, NMC Healthcare is planning to get over 80 of its staff members for its hospitals: NMC Speciality Hospitals at Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, NMC Royal Hospital, Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi and for NMC ProVita International Medical Center, Bareen International Hospital and NMC Clinics at Sharjah among others. These doctors, nurses and paramedics would be flying with special regulatory approvals via Cochin, Calicut, Trivandrum, Mumbai, Delhi, Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Chennai.

-Ends-

About NMC Health

NMC is one of the leading private healthcare operators in the Gulf Cooperation Council ("GCC") with an international network of multi-specialty inpatient and outpatient clinics and hospitals, specialised maternity and fertility clinics, and long-term care homes across nineteen countries. NMC also ranks as one of the top two in-vitro fertilisation operators globally. The NMC Health Group is recognised as a leading provider of long-term medical care in the UAE through its subsidiary ProVita. NMC has a total capacity of 2,207 licensed beds across its network

NMC Health Plc was placed into administration by the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts of England and Wales on 9 April 2020 and Richard Fleming, Mark Firmin and Ben Cairns of Alvarez & Marsal Europe LLP were appointed as Joint Administrators. On 27 September 2020 a number of the entities of the NMC Healthcare Ltd were placed into administration under Abu Dhabi Global Market Regulations. Richard Fleming and Ben Cairns were appointed as Joint Administrators. For full information regarding these appointments please redirect to this web page: https://nmc.ae/ 

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