Patients can soon complain online about health providers
The UAE’s health ministry will launch an initiative to allow patients to lodge complaints against private medical care providers online.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention said the project was designed to ensure healthcare providers were accountable to the public.
The new E-service will give patients across the Emirates the opportunity to submit complaints or observations about private medical facilities and their workforce, including doctors, nurses and technical staff.
The ministry said it would investigate complaints and impose sanctions if necessary.
Dr Hessa Mubarak, Director of the Health Empowerment and Compliance Department at the ministry, said the private medical sector was tightly regulated and under regular scrutiny.
“Private medical facilities always undergo strict and permanent scrutiny in order to prevent malpractice by unlicensed doctors and to reduce cases of negligence, shortcomings and medical errors, which leads to [the imposition] of heavy sanctions and fines that might [result in] final closure of the facility,” Dr Mubarak said. Doctors guilty of making medical errors faced punishment under medical liability law.
The ministry has not announced when the online service will be available.
The news comes after Dubai Health Authority announced it would allow patients to rate their doctors online.
The DHA portal – which is expected to go live this month – will also allow users to check the cost of private treatment.
DubaiHealthBooking.com will link to private and government hospitals and clinics to offer patients greater choice and transparency over the quality of service they can expect to receive.
At a Federal National Council meeting held last month, the UAE’s health minister said a public database giving patients access to the career history of doctors could be introduced in the country.
Abdulrahman Al Owais, the Minister of Health and Prevention, told FNC members that discussions were under way on a system allowing the public to access the backgrounds of doctors licensed to practise in the country.
The minister made the admission after council members called for greater transparency in the medical field to allow patients to make informed decisions on their treatment.