NMC Healthcare Group ("NMC"), a leading integrated private healthcare provider in the United Arab Emirates, highlights the vital role of palliative care, a specialist service that remains among the rarest in the UAE's healthcare landscape, and one that NMC is committed to expanding.
As one of only a small number of providers offering dedicated palliative care in the UAE, NMC is working to ensure that patients facing serious or life-limiting illnesses, and their families, receive the compassionate, dignified, and holistic support they need at the most challenging time of their lives. NMC's palliative care services are available at two locations across the UAE: NMC Speciality Hospital Al Nahda and NMC Royal Hospital Dubai Investments Park (DIP).
Palliative care is a relatively new medical specialty in the UAE, and access to these services for non-cancer patients is particularly rare. NMC's palliative care programme, led by Dr. Paul Coulter, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, is designed to fill this critical gap, delivering expert support to patients and families across a broad range of serious conditions, from the point of diagnosis through to end of life.
A Family's Journey: Compassion in Practice
The true impact of NMC's palliative care team is perhaps best understood through the experience of Mohd. Mazhar Siddique and his family. When Siddique, a long-time UAE resident with a history of complex medical conditions, was diagnosed with terminal Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD), the family found themselves confronting the daunting reality of a life-limiting illness.
“Living in a state of constant oxygen deprivation, forever 'hungry' for more air is a debilitating affliction I would not wish on anyone. Its emotional, mental, physical, physiological, and psychological toll on the patient and their family is profound,” said Siddique’s daughter Fouzia. “So, when I started looking for a palliative medicine doctor in Dubai, I was seeking someone who was going to offer my family the dignity that we would want our father to have in death, in much the same way as he had lived his life.”
Dr. Coulter worked closely with the family to coordinate a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and holistic care plan tailored to the specific needs of Siddique that included complex decision making across multiple different specialities including neurology, endocrinology, cardiology, pulmonology, dietetics and gastroentology. This also included regular home visits, symptom management with opiates, a Speech and Language Therapy assessment, and careful discussion of advance care decisions, including the family's wishes regarding ventilation and CPR, ensuring that no unnecessary or distressing procedures would be imposed.
Dr. Paul Coulter, Consultant in Palliative Medicine at NMC, commented: “Palliative care is about more than treatment, it is about dignity, compassion and being truly present for patients and families at the most difficult moments. I want my patients to receive the best care, a level of care I would want for my own father and mother.”
NMC's palliative care works in close collaboration with patients, families, and referring clinicians to provide integrated support that addresses the physical, emotional, and psychological dimensions of serious illness, enabling patients to live as comfortably and as fully as possible. NMC's palliative care services are available at NMC Speciality Hospital Al Nahda and NMC Royal Hospital Dubai Investments Park.
To find out more or to make a referral, visit: https://nmc.ae/en/speciality/palliative-care
To view the video documenting this patient’s moving journey through palliative care, visit https://nmc.ae/en/testimonials
