Physician, prove thyself

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is planning to make doctors demonstrate their skills before giving them licenses to practice in the emirate, Khaleej Times reported on Monday. The body is looking at creating a surgical skills laboratory, where physicians will have to display their proficiency.

“This is being done to ensure patient safety and see if the surgeon or physician is fit to practice,” Essa Kazim, CEO of Health Policy and Strategy at DHA said at the Arab Health conference last week. The timeline for the laboratory was still being worked out, he said.

“We cannot judge the surgical competency of any physician from paperwork alone. We will also have to see if the surgeon has worked ’solo’ or not,” he said.

In case physicians don’t qualify at the demonstration, they will be have to receive further training and medical education to continue working in Dubai, said the report.

Under this new system, the authority said that it will be only body authorized to issue licenses to physicians and healthcare facilities. “The new process has been designed to ensure a coordinated approach to the licensing system in Dubai,” said Kazim.

The DHA first announced an overhaul of its licensing system in 2008, under which it said that about 15,000 medical professionals would be required to reapply for their licenses. All the information about the practitioners would be posted on the DHA website, said Kazim at the time.

Gradually, the DHA said that it would “rate and make public the performance of professionals by assessing the outcomes of their patients.”