Around 120 patients have benefited so far from Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA’s) Dawa’ee free medication home delivery service.
DHA launched the service last month to further improve patients’ experience and enhance their comfort. Dr Ali Al Sayed, Director of the Pharmaceutical Services Department at DHA, said, “The service has had a lot of demand from elderly and people of determination. We are proud that the service has brought happiness to patients who have medical conditions that may prohibit them from physically going to get their medication. We are planning on expanding this service in the future to not only include the emirate of Dubai but also DHA patients living in the northern emirates.”
How it works
Dawa’ee may be used by Emiratis who have a valid prescription from a DHA health facility or a valid ENAYA or SAADA health insurance programme. They can access the service by logging onto Dha.gov.ae and making a request. Patients need to provide a preferred date of delivery, last appointment details and customer information. The delivery of medications to patients may help improve compliance as well.
“The medication is being delivered by certified DHA pharmacists who counsel patients on the use of prescription and advises patients on how to correctly store the medication, ensuring correct medical consumption to ultimately achieve a healthier and happier community,” added Dr Al Sayed.
He concluded by highlighting the Pharmaceutical Services Department’s latest services, which include DHA’s five smart pharmacies — two in Rashid Hospital, one in Dubai Hospital, one in Latifa Hospital and one in Nad Al Hammar primary health centre. “The smart pharmacies dispense and prescribe medication through a unified barcoding system. The smart pharmacies are operated via a robot that can store up to 35,000 medicines, prepare 12 prescriptions in a minute and dispense 8,000 medicines in an hour.” As per statistics, 36 million items were barcoded and integrated within the SALAMA electronic medical record system in 2017. There were zero dispensing errors in 2017.
