11,000 DHA’s employees participated in drafting the strategy
Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum asserted that the Dubai’s healthcare sector is facing a challenge over the upcoming five years and the sector needs to develop to meet the expectations and further boosts Dubai position as a regional hub for medical services.
His Highness remarks came while launching Dubai Health Strategy at the Executive Office in presence of Dubai Crown Prince His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The strategy, aiming to revamp the health sector, features four main approaches, six objectives, 15 programmes and 93 initiatives, to achieve the leap required over the next five years. The four approaches include health and lifestyle, excellence in providing service, smart health care, and governance.
Shaikh Mohammad said: “Dubai is facing the challenge to improve health-care services and rise to our ambitions and aspirations for establishing Dubai as a main medical destination in the UAE and the wider region where one billion people are living around us.”
The strategy aims to achieve six goals -- ensuring a healthy and safe environment for Dubai's people, ensuring the provision of a high quality comprehensive and integrated health service system, achieving innovation, improving efficiency in providing health care, and creating an integrated database to be used for the smart government policy in taking decision.
Other goals include creating an effective ecological system for the health-care sector in Dubai in collaboration with the private and public sectors, in addition to restructuring DHA's administration.
It was drafted by 11,000 employees of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), as well as DHA leaders, owners and directors of private health facilities, pharmaceutical and IT companies, companies manufacturing medical formulas and insurance agencies.
Shaikh Mohammad said people's expectations are on the rise because they used to excellence in various sectors in the UAE. "It is everyone's responsibility to develop this vital sector and we will continuously follow up on the developments. Our confidence in DHA leaders is determined by the volume of progress and development in medical services rendered to the public."
He said: "Our most important investment will be in DHA medial cadres and staff because they are the real capital due to their knowledge, skills and continued training. We will also build strategic partnerships with the private sector to ensure the consolidation of Dubai as a capital for medical tourism during the coming period."
The strategy's programmes and goals take into consideration Dubai's global position as a prosperous and fast-growing city.
The strategy also takes into consideration the emirate's aspirations to be a global model in the field of health as a city that has a happy and healthy society. This will be achieved through medical and research institutions that use the most advanced technologies and smart applications operated by administrative, medical, technical and nursing cadres.
The authority derived the eight pillars of its strategy from the directives of Shaikh Mohammad, in which he reaffirmed the importance of achieving the highest international standards and providing the highest quality medical care to patients with chronic diseases. The strategy aims to instill a culture of early detection and raising awareness about the importance of regular check-ups, as well as reducing the dangerous impacts of malignant diseases.
Providing continuous training to national medical staff, especially in rare medical disciplines, and finding proper treatments and therapies for incurable diseases are also among the basic pillars of the strategy. The strategy focuses on research and studies that contribute to developing the efficiency of DHA hospitals and their medical and technical staff, as well as keeping abreast of the latest in medical and health sciences.
Dubai's economic competitiveness to achieve the optimal investment of financial and human resources were taken into consideration to attract capital into the health sector.
The strategy also aims to achieve customer satisfaction and protect the rights of patients. It encourages the medical staff to work as a team, excel and innovate, in addition to creating a creative work environment that stimulates innovation. The strategy was developed to keep pace with a knowledge-based economy, sustainability standards, tools of governance and automation of data systems and rules, as well as information related to the latest medical technologies and post-2015 Development Agenda, determined by the United Nations, represented by the World Health Organization.
Also present on the occasion were President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Minister of Cabinet Affairs Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Chairman and Director General of DHA Humaid Mohammad Al Qutami, Director General of His Highness the Ruler”s Court Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani and Director General of Dubai Protocol Department Khalifa Saeed Sulaiman.
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