What is Dubai Health, Dubai’s new entity overseeing patient care and how is it different from DHA?

Dubai: At 11.11 am on 11/11/23, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, took to social media platform X to announce the new brand identity for ‘Dubai Health’, the emirate’s first integrated academic health system that seeks to enhance the quality of patient care in the city.

What exactly does this entity do and how is it different from the Dubai Health Authority (DHA)? Gulf News has put together everything Dubai residents need to know including a new toll-free number for appointment booking.

The academic health entity in Dubai was known as Dubai Academic Health Corporation which was established in 2021. It has now been rebranded as Dubai Health.

With the rebranding, the entity is offering an integrated academic health system that aims to advance health services in Dubai by clubbing together healthcare, medical education and scientific research. The new identity encapsulates essential pillars that underscore collaborative teamwork, aiming to consolidate Dubai’s leadership in advancing healthcare excellence across the domains of health, education and research.

The top health systems worldwide, e.g., Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, etc., prioritise care, education, and research, integrating facilities, personnel, and philanthropy for healthcare advancement. Affiliations with universities underscore the academic influence on patient outcomes and societal well-being.

Some include philanthropic foundations. Dubai’s leadership decided to adopt this model to ensure that the emirate’s health system also reaches the world-class level.

The establishment of a new phase in Dubai’s health system has been timed to mark 53 years after the first healthcare entity of the emirate, the Department of Health and Medical Services or DoHMS, was set up in November 1970.

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) was providing care and regulating healthcare providers and professionals after DoHMS was rebranded as DHA in 2007. Dubai Health will now be in charge of health service delivery and patient care in Dubai, while DHA will continue to be the regulatory authority.

DHA sets the strategies and makes policies. It regulates the healthcare sector, issues licences to healthcare providers and professionals and conducts inspections. It will continue to manage the insurance sector, the financing of the healthcare system and public health policies.

Dubai Health has taken over the role of overseeing healthcare services of six hospitals, 26 ambulatory health centres, 20 medical fitness centres, as well as the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU) and Al Jalila Foundation.

Rashid Hospital, Dubai Hospital, Latifa Hospital, Hatta Hospital, Jebel Ali Hospital (Emergency and Trauma Centre) and Al Jalila Children’s Hospital.

Dubai Health has launched a new toll-free number – 80060 – for appointment booking at these hospitals and for enquiries related to the entities under Dubai Health.

Patients can raise health services-related complaints to Dubai Health. However, medico-legal cases, especially those involving medical negligence, will be handled by DHA.

Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hamdan Bin Mohammed College of Dental Medicine, College of Medicine, College of Nursing and Midwifery. It will also oversee research and graduate studies and postgraduate medical education in the emirate.

Dubai Health will work in partnership with the private sector on the patient’s journey on different outcomes. For instance, with a hospital in the private sector, Dubai Health can have an education mission or a research mission or even both together.

Dubai Health aims to enhance the quality of patient care in the emirate. It envisions its professionals collaborating across multidisciplinary teams to provide compassionate, evidence-based care, centred on the patients and their families.

Healthcare professionals can conduct research and see the research findings getting translated into clinical applications, benefiting patients directly. They can don multiple roles as faculty members, investigators in research projects and consultants in hospitals.

Enhancing health outcomes, improving efficiency and coverage, attracting strategic investment in life science, promoting research and innovation, recruiting and retaining exceptional talent and building local health capacity.

‘Together we advance health for humanity,’ is the vision of Dubai Health. Its mission is to “serve to impact lives and shape the future of health through the integration of care, learning, discovery and giving.

Patient first (primary value), respect, excellence, teamwork, integrity, and empathy.

Chairman Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Vice Chairman Sheikh Mansoor Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and board members Awadh Seghayer Al Ketbi, Dr Raja Easa Al Gurg, Abdullah Abdul Rahman Al Shaibani, Prof Sir Ian Andrew Greer, Waleed Saeed Al Awadhi, Mohammed Hassan Al Shehhi, Dr Amer Ahmad Sharif, who is also the CEO of Dubai Health, and Prof Alawi Alsheikh-Ali, the deputy CEO.