Dubai: Keeping in mind the high demand for medical fitness and visa renewal centres in the emirate, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) relaunched the Al Rashidiya Medical Fitness Centre as a family centre on Wednesday.
The facility is now one of DHA’s 16 centres across the emirate for issuance and renewal of visas. After extensive renovations and expansions it now has the capacity to handle 300-1,500 patients each day, providing medical fitness tests required for visa renewal or new visas. These include blood tests, and X-rays which are mandatory requirement for all expatriates in the UAE for residency, employment or education visa. Before this the facility was a women’s only fitness centre for the last five years.
The total number of people who visited DHA-run medical fitness centres in 2015 was 2,051,802. Of these, 843,085 were new applicants and the remaining were visa renewals. Recognising the need for another centre this facility was turned into a medical fitness and visa renewal centre for families.
Inaugurating the centre, Humaid Al Qutami, chairman of the board and director-general of DHA, said, “The DHA plans on expanding its service reach geographically and by offering more specialised services in order to cater to all members of society wherever they are,” he said.
“We found that many women wanted to come with their husbands and sons to finish the medical fitness tests for their visa, so we renovated the centre as a family centre instead of a female only centre,” said Maisa Al Bostani, director of the Medical Fitness Services Department at DHA.
Al Bostani said the centre, which will operate from Sunday to Thursday from 7.30am to 2.30pm, will cater to all surrounding residential areas that include Al Rashidiya, Al Khawaneej, Al Twar and Al Warqa’a.
Al Bostani also added that when there is a high demand the working hours will be extended to meet the needs of all customers.
The renovated centre includes treatment rooms, X-ray rooms, blood collection rooms and a blood-processing lab, to name a few.
Men and women wishing to renew their visa can take the medical tests at the centre (given that they are a family), however only women can take the required medical tests for applying for a new visa.
