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MoH sets deadline for pvt health facilities to regularise employees

The UAE health authorities recently detected many private health facilities trading in employment visas by illegally recruiting medical and technical personnel, thus jeopardising public health safety, a senior health official has revealed.

"Many private medical clinics and centres have been convicted of employing unlicensed medical and technical personnel. This practice endangers the safety of people and increases the risk of medical errors. Sometimes, these errors may even prove fatal," Dr Ibrahim Ali Al Qadi, Director of the Private Medical Practice Department at the Ministry of Health, told Khaleej Times yesterday.

He said the main motive behind such unscrupulous practice is the illegal trading in employment visas. Some private health facilities tend to bring in bogus staff that they do not actually need, in order to employ them elsewhere.

"The ministry has set September 1 as a deadline for all such medical facilities to regularise the status of their employees or face stringent legal actions and penalties."

He said that the Private Medical Licensing Committee has discovered some private health clinics were employing people in sensitive positions which directly affects decisions regarding people's life without being evaluated and licensed by the ministry.

"There has been a dramatic increase in such breaches recently," disclosed Dr Qadi. He added, other such violations involve the illegal employment of do-ctors and technicians in administrative posts without prior approval of the ministry."

"Doctors and technicians should undergo the ministry's evaluation exams first and get a licence to practice the profession", stressed Dr Qadi.

He vowed no exceptions would be granted to erring institutions after the deadline and that strict penalties would be inflicted on all defaulters.

• UAE