Dubai Ambulance teams responded to emergencies involving 235,394 people last year and reduced the average response time to 7.5 minutes, a 13 per cent improvement from 2022.
It also saved 90 people suffering from cardiac arrests, marking a 21 per cent increase in life-saving operations, according to the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services.
Teams responded to a wide range of cases from minor to critical. Of the 235,394 total responses, Dubai Ambulance crews transported 69,647 emergency cases and 26,816 non-emergency cases to both government and private healthcare facilities. Other casualties were treated at the scene.
Awad Saghir Al Ketbi, chairman of Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services, said 12 new ambulance points were introduced across the emirate.
“The organisation has become a global leader in ambulance and emergency medical services driven by its goal of protecting the lives of members of the community,” he said.
“This expansion brought the total number of ambulance points operated by the corporation to 133, strategically distributed across Dubai.”
Ambulance points are locations specifically situated on busy roads and remote areas across Dubai, intended to help ease access for crews attending accident scenes in the emirate.
The organisation also announced that women now constitute 21 per cent of its workforce, which includes 1,375 professionals such as emergency doctors and paramedics.
In 2023, the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services covered 42 major events, offered 242 training programmes for both private and public sector employees, and organised 64 awareness-raising programmes.
"These events included significant occasions such as Eid celebrations, New Year’s events, local and international races, exhibitions, and global conferences," Mr Al Ketbi said.
Last year the organisation regulated 120 training centres and 62 healthcare facilities, certified 732 professionals and licensed 127 ambulance vehicles.
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.