Dubai Health Authority to begin implementation of unified medical professionals licensure process.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October, 2014: The Dubai Health Authority(DHA) will begin implementation of unified medical professionals licensure process, said a top health official.

The move is in line with the agreement that was signed by UAE health authorities for the unification of licenses for medical practitioners in the country, on the sidelines of Arab Health Exhibition and Congress, in January, this year.

From 12th October, the Ministry of Health, Dubai Health Authority(DHA) and Health Authority-Abu Dhabi( HAAD) will begin implementation of this process.

His Excellency Engineer Essa Al Maidoor, Director-General of the DHA, said: “The agreement paves way for medical professionals to work across the UAE and is important as it unifies as well as streamlines the professional medical licensure process. The move has several benefits for the healthcare sector. With the introduction of this process, all healthcare professionals will be evaluated based on the same criteria across UAE.”

He added that  all professionals graduating from accredited local programs within UAE will be exempted from experience requirement so that they can begin practice in their field of medicine or nursing after completion of medical program and internship. For the first two years, they will work under supervision in a secondary or tertiary hospital.

He also added that for certain certificate holders, the number of years required for a specialist physician/dentist to be a consultant has been reduced from 8 to 5 years as a means to provide growth opportunities to medical professionals.

Al Maidoor said holders of American board, Canadian board, and Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) holders from UK will be eligible to be consultants directly.

Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, Acting-Director of Health Regulation Department at the DHA, said: “ More recognized specialties have been added to the ‘physician and dentist’ list of specialties. In addition, more titles have been added to different healthcare categories such as specialist nurse, and clinical pharmacist.”

She also added that it is now possible for local healthcare professionals with a gap of 10 years and expatriate medical professionals with a gap of five years to return to practice after meeting certain stringent criteria.

Al Marzouqi said all these changes will directly help further enhance the health sector in the UAE.