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Abu Dhabi unveils ambulances for newborns, critical cases, patients weighing up to 300kg
New specialised vehicles include a mobile critical-care unit capable of transporting patients requiring advanced life support
- PUBLISHED: Thu 20 Aug 2026, 12:47 PM
A critically ill patient requiring advanced life support, a newborn who needs resuscitation after an emergency delivery, and a patient weighing up to 300kg can now be transported in specialised ambulances designed around their specific medical needs in Abu Dhabi.
The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi has unveiled a new fleet of smart and specialised ambulances, including a mobile critical-care unit equipped to support patients requiring ECMO, an ambulance dedicated to mothers and newborns, and a specially designed vehicle for patients with severe obesity.
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The new vehicles were showcased alongside a comprehensive emergency medical operations centre that acts as a command hub for the emirate's emergency healthcare system, giving teams a live view of ambulances, hospital capacity, emergency departments, specialised services, weather conditions and other operational data.
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The system has already contributed to a reported 49.5 per cent reduction in response times for heart attack cases, according to Dr Salama Al Tamimi, Executive Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi.
Take a look at some photos:
From ambulance to mobile critical-care unit
One of the new ambulances is effectively a mobile critical-care unit, designed for patients whose condition requires interventions that cannot be accommodated in a conventional ambulance.
Dr Al Tamimi said the vehicle can support patients requiring Ecmo, a form of advanced life support that can temporarily take over the functions of the heart and lungs.
Ecmo equipment is large and cannot easily fit into a conventional ambulance, she explained, making a specialised vehicle necessary when a patient requiring the treatment needs to be transported.
The ambulance also has equipment including an infusion pump, ECG monitoring, ultrasound equipment and advanced ventilation capabilities.
Paramedic Meera Al Ruqaishi, who demonstrated the vehicle, pointed out the infusion pump and ultrasound equipment as examples of technology used to support critically ill patients.
She also highlighted the larger interior space, which allows medical teams greater room to work around a patient during transport.
For a patient who is struggling to breathe, for example, the ambulance is equipped to provide artificial ventilation and monitor the patient's condition during the journey.
The equipment is already in use, Dr Al Tamimi said.
Ambulance designed around mothers and newborns
A second specialised ambulance focuses on mothers and babies, particularly emergencies involving births outside hospital or during transport.
The vehicle includes equipment designed to keep newborns safe and provide immediate support when a baby requires resuscitation.
Senior paramedic Salama Al Kabari, while demonstrating the ambulance, explained that premature births and babies requiring immediate intervention can occur outside hospital, making it essential for the ambulance team to be able to provide appropriate care before reaching a medical facility.
“It happened to us many times, that a mother gave birth inside the ambulance,” she said.
Dr Al Tamimi said crews assigned to these cases receive specialised training, including how to manage newborns who are not breathing and require resuscitation.
The ambulance can also be used for transfers involving mothers and babies between hospitals.
Special vehicle for patients weighing up to 300kg
The third ambulance addresses a different challenge: transporting patients with severe obesity.
Dr Al Tamimi said conventional ambulance vehicles create logistical difficulties when a patient weighs 200kg, 250kg or 300kg and cannot easily leave their home.
In some cases, she said, lifting equipment has previously been required to get patients out of buildings because conventional ambulance vehicles cannot accommodate them. In such scenarios, intervention is needed by all forces, including civil defence, she said.
The specialised vehicle provides a dedicated pathway for such patients, with appropriate equipment and trained crews.
Dr Al Tamimi stressed that while the health system continues to encourage healthy lifestyles, patients with obesity still require the same access to emergency care as everyone else.
Inside Abu Dhabi's emergency command centre
The ambulance launch was accompanied by a showcase of the emergency medical operations centre, established in December 2024 to coordinate the patient's journey from the moment an emergency call is received through to hospital care.
The centre resembles a large, circular command room, with rows of workstations arranged around a central area and a vast curved wall of digital screens dominating the room.
Live maps, ambulance movements, operational dashboards, graphs and other data are displayed across the screens, giving emergency teams a real-time picture of what is happening across the emirate.
Dr Al Tamimi said the centre was created to bring the healthcare system together around the patient's entire journey, rather than treating the ambulance trip and hospital admission as separate stages.
The centre receives information from ambulances, including ECG readings and vital signs, allowing hospital teams to prepare before a patient arrives.
It also tracks ambulance movements and inter-facility transfers, including patients being moved between Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Al Dhafra region, as well as transfers from other emirates into Abu Dhabi.
The centre maps the specialised services available across the emirate, including stroke, trauma, paediatric critical care and Ecmo capabilities.
This means the nearest hospital is not necessarily the destination automatically. Emergency teams can identify which facility has the required specialist service, capacity and resources for a particular patient.
Dr Al Tamimi said the system also allows teams to monitor hospital capacity and coordinate transfers when a facility does not have the required speciality or has limited capacity.
The centre currently brings together information from 42 healthcare providers across Abu Dhabi, while also incorporating weather alerts and other information that could affect emergency response and logistics.
It also includes cybersecurity management and operations capabilities.
Cutting response times
Dr Al Tamimi said the system is already producing measurable results.
For heart attack cases, she said response times have fallen by 49.5 per cent, with the improvement reflected in patient survival rates as well as having a financial impact.
The centre uses data and artificial intelligence to support decision-making, identify the nature of emergency cases and determine which resources should be deployed.
Cases are classified according to their urgency, allowing emergency resources to be prioritised and ambulances to be dispatched according to the nature of the incident.
The system can also coordinate the wider response during major incidents, bringing together ambulance services, hospitals and other partners.
The new specialised ambulances are being deployed across Abu Dhabi, including Abu Dhabi city, Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
Officials said the wider objective is to move beyond simply getting an ambulance to a patient quickly and ensure that the patient receives the right specialised care at the earliest possible stage.
The initiative was launched jointly by the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Civil Defence, with officials describing it as part of a wider effort to integrate emergency response, healthcare, technology and specialised medical expertise.
The new system is intended to ensure that when every minute can affect a patient's outcome, the response does not end when an ambulance arrives but continues as a coordinated journey from the scene of an emergency to the most appropriate hospital.
