Dubai Health Authority (DHA) will launch a Dubai Healthcare Professionals Registry by the end of this year.
The announcement was made at the 13th International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA), that took place last week in Dubai under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and President of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA).
The main theme for the conference, which took place for the first time in the Middle East, was empowering regulation with innovation and evidence. The four sub-themes were: Safe Practice and Quality, Innovative Regulation Models, Medical Work Force and Medical Education.
HE Humaid Al Qutami, Director General of the DHA thanked HH Sheikh Hamdan for his patronage and for supporting the conference.
Al Qutami said, “Regulation plays a pivotal role in the healthcare industry. Healthcare regulations and standards are necessary to provide safe and high-quality healthcare to every individual who accesses the system. The DHA is continuously developing as well as updating its regulatory systems to provide healthcare professionals and facilities with convenient licensing processes.”
Dr Marwan Al Mulla, CEO of the Health Regulation Sector highlighted that the Dubai Healthcare Professionals Registry will provide healthcare facilities and investors with detailed information about medical professionals in the emirate.
The registry will include details about all medical professionals including doctors, nurses, paramedics and radiologists. Dubai has seen robust growth in the number of medical professionals over the years. In 2009, there were 14,677 medical professionals in the emirate, a number that has increased to approximately 38,000 as of October, 2018.
Dr Al Mulla said the registry has many benefits, especially for professionals who no longer need to reapply if they leave the emirate and work abroad.
Elaborating on this Dr Al Mulla said, “Previously, if a health professional left the emirate to work abroad, his license would be cancelled. If he came back to Dubai, he would have to reapply and would need to undertake all the processes required for a new license. With the introduction of this system, such health professionals will be under the inactive status and if they decide to come back to work in the emirate they will undergo regulatory checks that fall under the renewal category as opposed to the new license category.”
Dr Al Mulla added that the registry will ensure a faster process and will further improve retention of healthcare professionals.
He added that professionals who leave Dubai and do not continue their work, will not fall under this category. “This applies only to those professionals who either continue their medical education or medical practice abroad.”
Dr Al Mulla said that DHA will also rate all healthcare facilities including public and private hospitals and day-care health centres in Dubai in accordance with the Dubai Health Facilities Performance Framework, or DHFPF.
The framework, known as Qeyas, will be finalised and implemented at the beginning of next year and has five pillars, which are patient safety, clinical quality, patient happiness and financial and operational indicators.
Benefits of registry implementation for DHA
Following the implementation of the registry, DHA will be able to:
• Improve quality across the health system in Dubai.
• Provide consumers with information to help empower them to make better choices about healthcare providers.
• Provide medical tourists with trustworthy, independently validated information about Dubai’s healthcare quality.
• Develop a long-term reimbursement strategy based on the evidence of care provided.
