Thumbay University Hospital launches 24-hour ‘DRIVE-THRU Pharmacy’ to enable social distancing
Thumbay University Hospital, the largest private academic hospital in the region located at Thumbay Medicity, Al Jurf, Ajman, has launched 24-hour drive-through pharmacy service at the hospital premises, enabling patients and customers to collect their medication without stepping out of their cars. The move comes as part of the hospital’s series of measures to improve customer convenience and safety, in the wake of the social distancing and hygiene regulations mandated by the UAE authorities and WHO due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Customers can drive in and place their orders or present their prescriptions and collect the medications without having to physically enter the pharmacy, and by maintaining the stipulated social distance with the pharmacy staff handling their request. Direction signage have been installed at the hospital entrance and at other relevant places, ensuring that people have no difficulties accessing the drive-through service.
“Pharmacies play a vital role in the healthcare system, providing critical services to the public, especially in times like these when the world is dealing with a pandemic. It is important for Thumbay University Hospital to ensure the safe and continuous functioning of our pharmacy. By launching drive-through service, we intend to minimize risks for our staff as well as patients and customers, through infection prevention and social distancing measures. This also ensures round-the-clock availability of medicines and other pharmacy essentials,” said Dr. Mohammad Faisal, the COO of Thumbay University Hospital.
Moreover, the hospital has also enabled chronic medication refill for insurance patients by just making a phone call to 054-9955415. “We want to assure our patients that they will always have easy access to enough chronic medications including cardiac medications, diabetic medications or any potentially important medication that they need on a routine basis. Patients can get their medicines at home through the home delivery of medicines being done by Thumbay University Hospitalpharmacy,” said Dr. Mohammad Faisal.
Elaborating on the efforts of the Thumbay Pharmacy network to ensure the safety of its staff and customers, Ravi K Gannavarapu, General Manager of the Retail Division of Thumbay Group said, “All Thumbay Pharmacies in the UAE are taking active steps to facilitate social distancing and hygiene, thereby reducing risks of exposure. All our pharmacy outlets frequently clean and disinfect customer service counters, waiting areas and customer contact areas. Thumbay Pharmacy’s drive-through service at Thumbay University Hospital is the latest step in this direction.”
Thumbay University Hospital has a robotic pharmacy with automated robotic technology to prepare and dispense medicines. This smart pharmacy, part of the Thumbay Pharmacy network, ensures zero dispensing errors and achieves considerable reduction in waiting times. Spread across 4700 sq. ft. area, it is equipped with robotic and pneumatic tube system, and has been designed for high density storage up to 42,000 units and hassle-free retrieval of medications. It is equipped with medication safety bar-code scanning, ensuring that the medications and strengths are correct during both the carousel stocking and dispensing process.
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Harish Rana, India's first person to be allowed passive euthanasia, dies in AIIMS
New Delhi (PTI): Harish Rana, the first person in India to be allowed passive euthanasia, passed away on Tuesday at AIIMS-Delhi after more than 13 years in a coma, sources said.
The 31-year-old, who has been in a coma since 2013, was shifted from his Ghaziabad home to the palliative care unit at Dr BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on March 14.
Three days before that, the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment on March 11, allowed passive euthanasia for Harish, who was a BTech student at Panjab University who fell from a fourth-floor balcony in 2013 and suffered severe head injuries.
He had been in a coma since, with artificial nutrition support and occasional oxygen support.
Passive euthanasia is the intentional act of letting a patient die by withholding or withdrawing life support or the treatment necessary to keep him alive.
Harish's nutritional support was gradually withdrawn after he was admitted to the hospital, the sources said on Tuesday.
Harish's family had said after the apex court judgment that the withdrawal of artificial life support would not bring any personal benefit to the family, but in the larger public interest, the decision could help others facing similar situations.
His father, Ashok Rana, had said passive euthanasia would restore Harish's dignity after years of irreversible suffering.
Pinki Virani, a journalist and activist who filed a petition for euthanasia to Aruna Shanbaug in 2011, thanked the doctors and nurses at AIIMS for “compassionately applying passive euthanasia”, and urged that one should let their family members know “if they would want to exercise this right for themselves”.
“May Harish Rana rest in peace. May his parents and his brother find a quiet peace of their own amid what has been a very long loss for them... I continue to be grateful to the Supreme Court for allowing the right to die with dignity in 2011... It's a choice, and if they so choose, they can help the process by making their wishes – pertaining legally to passive euthanasia – known so that their final exit is free from guilt and trauma,” Virani told PTI.
The top court had rejected Virani's plea on behalf of Shanbaug, who remained bedridden in a vegetative state in a Mumbai hospital since a brutal sexual assault in November 1973.
The Mumbai nurse finally died of pneumonia in 2015.
In its March 11 judgement, the apex court had directed AIIMS-Delhi to ensure that life support is withdrawn with a tailored plan so that dignity is maintained.
A specialised medical team headed by Dr Seema Mishra, professor and head of the department of anaesthesia and palliative medicine, was constituted to implement the process, the first in India.
The team comprised doctors from departments of neurosurgery, onco-anaesthesia and palliative medicine, and psychiatry.
The Supreme Court, in its March 11 judgment, allowed passive euthanasia for a person for the first time in the country.
Ruling on the long-discussed emotive issue, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan asked the Union government to consider bringing a comprehensive legislation on passive euthanasia.
The top court noted that Rana survived only through clinically administered nutrition via 'percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy' tubes, and medical boards had unanimously concluded that continuation of treatment would merely prolong biological existence without any possibility of recovery.
When primary and secondary boards have certified withdrawal of life support, there is no need for judicial intervention, the apex court said.
It also asked the Centre to ensure that the chief medical officers in all districts maintain a panel of registered medical practitioners for nomination to secondary medical boards.
The court made a special mention of Rana's parents, Ashok and Nirmala Rana, expressing its appreciation to them for showing immense love and care for their son.
“His family never left his side,” the court said.
The order allowing passive euthanasia is in line with the court's 2018 Common Cause judgment, which was modified in 2023 and recognised the fundamental right to die with dignity.
In the 2018 judgement, a constitution bench recognised passive euthanasia and the right to die with dignity as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The court had held that passive euthanasia could be carried out using “advance medical directives”.
On January 24, 2023, a five-judge Constitution bench modified the 2018 guidelines to ease the process of granting passive euthanasia to terminally ill patients.
A primary and a secondary medical board will have to be formed for an expert opinion on the withdrawal of artificial life support for a patient in a vegetative state, the guidelines said.
