A group of 20 critical care medical staff landed in the UAE on Tuesday from India, Khaleej Times has learnt. After getting special approvals from the UAE authorities, NMC Healthcare announced that the medics, including doctors, nurses and paramedics were flown in on two special Air Arabia flights from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram - they landed in Sharjah this morning.
This is the third batch of standard caregiver and Covid frontline staff that the group has flown from India in the last one month to help them resume their duties and support the UAE's fight against the pandemic.
In June, the NMC group flew in a group of critical care staff on a chartered 8-seater flight from Mumbai. These included 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), one of the passengers on this special 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 are expected to join soon, the group said in a statement.
NMC Healthcare added that in the next week or so it 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.