In a bid to further strengthen the provision of specialised care delivery across primary healthcare centres and to continue fostering the development of Emirati nationals, last week, Dubai Health Authority (DHA) signed a contract with the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) to provide a clinical fellowship to Emirati family medicine professionals.
Working together with our delivery partners at iheed in Dubai, we are delighted to enter into this long-term partnership agreement with the Dubai Health Authority for this important primary healthcare capacity initiative for Maternal and Child Health.
As per the contract, over the next three years, each year, eight Emirati family medicine specialists will undergo a yearly-specialised training programme in maternal and child healthcare.
The contract was signed by His Excellency Humaid Al Qutami, Director General of the DHA and Fintan Foy, Chief Executive Officer at the ICGP.
Al Qutami said, “The aim of this programme is two-fold. It helps us continue our efforts towards promoting, supporting and fostering the development of the Emirati workforce in the health sector in Dubai by providing them with internationally accredited opportunities for training and development.
The programme helps us continue our foray into strengthening our primary healthcare services. Globally the focus on primary healthcare is enormous as family physicians are gatekeepers of health and a strong primary healthcare sector helps ensure continuum of care across all age groups and that hospitals primarily deal with acute medical cases.” DHA has 13 primary healthcare centres in Dubai, three more will be operational in the next two years.
Fintan Foy, Chief Executive Officer at the ICGP said, “Working together with our delivery partners at iheed in Dubai, we are delighted to enter into this long-term partnership agreement with the Dubai Health Authority for this important primary healthcare capacity initiative for Maternal and Child Health.
"This is an innovative project, delivering an in-house and sustainable fellowship programme for local capacity while including international oversight, and innovative delivery using online education and assessment tools.”