Physician, prove thyself

Physician, prove thyself

Does your surgeon cut it? Dubai health authorities are asking doctors to demonstrate their skills before being granted licenses to practice.

February 1, 2010 2:11 by Aarti Nagraj

“We are not under any illusion that this is an easy task,” Kazim told The National. “It is going to be difficult. We think it will take around three or four years for everyone to be brought up to the standards, it might be earlier than that but you have to manage expectations,” he said.

Since then the body has been issuing several new regulations for physicians.

In November 2008, after a Dubai-based doctor, Mitra Nikkhah, was accused of with killing an elderly patient in the UK, the DHA said that it would conduct background checks on all the medical practitioners in the city. “We have two main roles: one is protecting the public, and the other is ensuring good patient care. This is the reason for doing this,” Kazim told The National at the time.

Nikkhah was later cleared of all charges by a UK court.

The DHA then set a deadline of April 8 2009 for all the doctors in the city to re-apply for their licenses. The body said that all the practitioners would have their qualifications verified and would have to get prove that they are not involved in any disciplinary proceedings.

The DHA said at the time that those who did not meet the criteria would be given a provisional license covering a specified grace period, within which they would have to improve their qualifications. The new licenses would come into effect in 2010, the body said.

So far, the DHA has managed to collect the data of 3,500 physicians, both from the public as well as the private sector.

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Tags: doctors, Dubai, health authority, health practitioners, license, qualification, skill