DHA cancels predated sick leave for patients

WAM -- The Dubai Health Authority, DHA, on Sunday announced that predated sick leave of three consecutive days or more will no longer be issued, which means sick leave can only be given on the day patients visit medical facilities and not on previous days.

The DHA urged physicians and others personnel at public and private medical facilities to abide by this new decision and refrain from giving patients predated sick leave.

Marwan Al Mulla, Director of the Health Planning Department at DHA, said that this procedure was implemented starting today at all public and private health facilities to achieve transparency.

Al Mulla stated that the electronic system, ‘Sharian’, has been re-programmed and no longer accepts predated sick leave, adding that the authority is now working on developing system standards and guidelines for medical facilities and physicians in Dubai.

He said that the Health Planning Department is working on a smart integrated electronic system that is connected to all external bodies responsible for licensing medical facilities and physicians. It is also working on developing the Dubai Health Registry Project and developing licencing standards for health professionals and facilities.

Al Mulla noted that the results of recent evaluations have confirmed the need to update and develop some regulations, develop electronic systems and expand the timescales of inspections of health facilities.

As for evaluation policies and examination exemptions, he explained that currently, the authority’s examination is valid for one year and the examination exemptions exclude dentists and specialists and consultants with certain European certificates. Al Mulla pointed out that the authority is planning to update this policy by extending the validity of these examinations to five years instead of one year. It will also exempt dentists from the authority’s assessment based on certain requirements. As part of the updated policies, specialists and consultants with European certificates from certain countries including Germany, France, Sweden and Italy will also be exempted.

Regarding the policy of licensing health professionals, applications from new professionals who do not conform to the UAE State Professional Licensing Manual are currently rejected. The DHA is now updating this policy with clear mechanisms to allow the licencing of rare professional qualifications, which Dubai requires to attract professionals from around the world, meet the needs of the labour market and raise the level of medical services in the emirate.