Dubai: A new paperless electronic health screening system launched by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) will completely revolutionise medical fitness tesing system for visa purposes — by completing details in under a minute instead of an hour, said a senior DHA official.
Salem, the smart new system integrated into all 16 DHA medical fitness centers, will cut down customer waiting time, reduce human intervention to zero and deliver blood and X-Ray reports electronically.
Launching the new system Dr Maisa Al Bustani, Director of Medical Fitness Services Department at DHA, explained the system will greatly help residents renewing their residence visa.
"Residents seeking to renew their residence visa," she said, "need to just go to any of the 65 accredited and approved centres or any of the 16 medical fitness centers and update their email and contact numbers. All identity data will be retrieved automatically via a bar code from the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs (GDRFA)."
The customer can directly proceed to any of the 16 medical fitness centers get the tests done.
Results
The results will be electronically conveyed to the applicant.
The move is significant given the vast number of people who require medical fitness services in Dubai.
In 2015, total number of people who visited Dubai Health Authority-run medical fitness centers were 2,051,802.
Of these 843,085 were new applicants and the remaining were visa-renewals.
Medical fitness test is a mandatory requirement for all expats in the UAE.
Medical fitness screening is a prerequisite for a residency, employment or education visa.
The launch of Salem is in line with the Dubai 2021 strategy and the Authority’s smart health initiatives that aims to provide customers with added convenience and quicker processing time.
Amani Sl Jassimi, Head of IT at DHAb added: "Salem is integrated with the GDRFA: "Once the applicant completes all the due screening procedures, the applicant will receive a SMS notification alert and we will send the results electronically via an email."
She added that all the DHA has also begun the process of streamlining medical fitness services to enhance the customer’s journey and make service centers a one-stop-shop for them.
How it works
1. Under Salem, companies with employees above 50 do not need to go through service centres as DHA provides them with unique usernames and passwords, so that they can directly fill the applications online using the system. Individuals can do so by logging on to the Salem website.
2. Companies with less than 50 employees need to go through service centers to fill out their application for visa issuance and renewal.
3. They can log onto the DHA website to find a list of accredited typing centers. Most of the medical fitness centers have a typing center in the same premise and they are accredited. This will provide added convenience in one location to the customer.
4. DHA has also accredited stand-alone service centers that meet their criteria.
"All typing centers are required to follow quality standards set by DHA to ensure customer happiness and professional service," said Al Bustani.
She added: " We will also make sure that all these centers are geographically distributed evenly across Dubai to ensure that residents are able to go to a center that is in proximity to his/her home.”
In the 16 medical fitness centers there are a variety of options available such as regular, VIP, 24 hour and 48 hour medical fitness service which ensures the results are provided within the selected time-frame.
The DHA also offers the Tawajod service, which is a fast-track service that is highly beneficial for corporate employees.
DHA employees visit the office or home of the individual who has requested for this service and conduct the medical fitness tests required on the spot. For every request, a maximum of 70 employees are tested. This saves the time of the business community as their employees can get the test done in their offices itself.
Dr Bustani added this service is also beneficial for homemakers who do not wish to go to a medical fitness centre to renew their visa. A request for this service can be made using the DHA’s website
