A call to the health ministry

It is one of the rights of patients to feel safe at the hands of a physician providing treatment. Patients are usually uncomfortable because the physician is unfamiliar and due to the medical procedure they undergo.

Unfortunately, the anxiety of patients increases as they are transferred from one physician to another, without knowing their qualifications and, in extreme cases, without even knowing their names.

Patients are never given the chance to choose between physicians in order to select the most appropriate expert for their medical condition.

Providing patients with the choice of selecting their physician is very important. For instance, although dentists generally study the same major, I presume those specialising in root canal treatment serve a different purpose than dentists specialising in crown and bridge replacement.

The best way to let patients know about the background and qualifications of physicians is through the Ministry of Health enforcing a law, which would require government and private hospitals and clinics to provide patients with a directory of physicians employed by them prior to providing any treatment.

This directory could be distributed to patients as hard copies or as links to the institution's website. As a result, patients would be able to know the physicians and they would be confident of the quality of service they would be likely to receive, based on the profiles of these physicians.

The directory should include profiles of all the physicians employed by the institution and each profile should include the following details about each physician: medical school attended, post graduate education received, internships and residencies completed, experience attained, fellowships granted, board certifications acknowledged, specialities acquired and professional organisations joined.

In addition to this, the profile should of course clarify the name and contact details of the physician.

Choice

The first and the most important party to benefit from the implementation of this suggestion would be the patient, who deals with the physicians. The patient would also be able to choose the physician with the background that best suits his or her medical needs.

On the other hand, having such a directory would create an atmosphere of competition between the physicians, as each would fight fiercely to have a better profile than the other.

All hospitals and clinics providing directories of physicians would benefit from this service as it will be seen as an innovative marketing tool for their institutions. This service would be promoting the most important resource of their institutions, which are the physicians.

Furthermore, due to the rising competition between physicians, their employers would have a team of highly qualified staff.

Hanan Esmail Al Sahlawiis an Emarati columnist based in Abu Dhabi.