Dubai: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) fined 261 medical facilities and received 357 complaints against private health providers in 2017, compared to 496 fines imposed in 2016.
Dr Marwan Al Mulla, Director of the Health Regulations Department at the DHA said the decrease in number of malpractices is the result of modernisation of monitoring system and the instilling the ethics of providing quality services to customers in private health care facilities.
Al Mulla said the main reason for issuing the fines was the non-compliance of health facilities and professionals with the DHA’s laws and regulations. This accounted for 103 of the total of violations in 2017. He said other reasons for imposing the fines included non-compliance with necessary technical conditions for establishing and operating the health facility and hiring unauthorised professionals for providing treatment.
Al Mulla said that DHA dealt with these violations in accordance with the Executive Council Resolution No 32 of 2012 on regulating the practice of health professionals in Dubai. He added that the authority took legal action against the violators, which ranged from closing the facility and terminating the licence to issuing warnings and re-evaluating the facilities.
He added that 346 new health facilities opened in Dubai last year bringing the total number to 3,115.
The DHA issued 14,314 professional licences in 2017 bringing the total number of professionals working in the health sector in Dubai to 37,325.
Out of the 37,325 professionals working in the health sector in Dubai, 7,698 are doctors, 16,361 are nurses and midwives, 11,007 are working in health-supporting field, 2,059 in dental health and 200 in the alternative medicine field.
He added that there are a number of initiatives launched by the authority to promote the investment environment in Dubai and to improve quality of services, which contributed to the growth of the health care sector.
He added that the DHA considers the private health care sector as its strategic partner that helps drive the developmental phases of the health care in Dubai.
