NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL/GULF TODAY
Healthcare overhaul in Dubai
DUBAI - NOV 05: All medical professionals will need to reapply for their right to practise under new measures designed to unify Dubai’s fragmented licensing regime and ensure patients are treated by someone who is competent and qualified.
Proposals for the new set of standards were disclosed yesterday at the MEED Middle East Healthcare Conference by Dr Essa Kazim, the director of health regulation at the Dubai Health Authority (DHA). The DHA’s new regulatory arm would implement the new standards.
Among the numerous regulatory gaps in Dubai’s healthcare system, there is no method in place to uniformly assess doctors, nurses or other professionals working in the private sector once they have received their licence to practice.
“They come to Dubai, apply for a licence, and go out to practise, we have got no evaluation mechanism,” said Dr Kazim. “We do not know what standard of practice is out there unless we get a complaint.”
There are about 10 regulatory bodies overseeing medical practitioners in Dubai, including Dubai Police and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC).
This fragmented system creates “disharmony and confusion” among professionals, he said, because with each different body comes different legislation and procedures. The new regulatory body would set a clear minimum standard for professionals.
More than 15,000 health professionals will be affected by the new rules, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists. About 6,000 doctors and 6,000 nurses will need to prove they meet the chosen minimum standard, even if it means further training.
About 1,300 doctors work in the government sector, with most in private practice.
Dr Kazim said the DHA had created new scopes – or limits – of practice for each profession.
“Information on these will be posted on the DHA website,” he said, “so that the public can see the qualifications and scopes of practice of individual practitioners in the emirate. It will be transparent.”
Eventually the authority wants to rate and make public the performance of professionals by assessing the outcomes of their patients. Both government and private facilities would be included.
“We are not under any illusion that this is an easy task,” Dr Kazim said. “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.”
Those who do not meet the new standards will be given support to help them reach the target level and a period of grace before they were shut down.
“If you have someone working in a solo practice in Dubai and you say ‘we are going to give you one year to obtain a postgraduate qualification, or some evidence that you have professionally improved’, they would have great difficulty to try and continue being the sole bread winner and at the same time improve themselves.”
Physicians will come under scrutiny first, followed by nurses and other professionals such as physiotherapists and pharmacists.
Final details of the new licensing process are still being worked out, but Dr Kazim said the criteria would probably be based on several well-recognised international qualifications.
Cultural, population and demographic differences mean it is not possible to simply apply standards from one country to the UAE, he said.
As it stands a doctor wanting to work in Dubai must get a licence from the Department of Health and Medical Services, the agency being replaced by the DHA. The same doctor wanting to move to a facility in Dubai Healthcare City would need to get another licence and go through a different set of procedures.
“It requires a lot of time and effort,” Dr Kazim said. “We will now make a system whereby there is just one licence needed to work in Dubai. If DHCC say they want extra, that is their prerogative. But in terms of regulation and licensing, there will be only one.”
One doctor, who runs a private practice in a busy area of Dubai, said he was concerned about reapplying for a licence.
The doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “I have worked in Dubai for more than 10 years since I moved from India where I qualified.
“To hear that I need to reapply for my licence is worrying. My qualifications are now old, so what if they are not accepted? Will they make me do more work? I have a lot of patients who I need to see for my business, I cannot afford to take lots of time off to study.”
Dr Kazim said he was aware the regulatory body could face some resistance from the medical profession.
“The doctors here work very hard for the qualifications they have attained,” he said. “But I think whichever method we come up with, the objective is to ensure that doctors are competent, as much as we can be sure, to work in Dubai.”
The licensing details have not been finalised, so he could not say what qualifications would be accepted and whether additional training would be required.
As well as assessing the quality and number of health professionals in Dubai, the DHA also plans to document what specialities are offered in the emirate’s various inpatient and outpatient facilities, and assess what is needed and where.
One directorate has been set up to collect information on the specialities, and another has been created to analyse what has been gathered.
“Because of the nature of Dubai,” Dr Kazim said. “There may be oversupply today, but by tomorrow there will not be.”
The regulatory body is also looking into related professions in the emirate, for example police paramedics. More details on the regulatory agency are expected to be released in coming weeks.
THE NATIONAL
Taxi call centre opens in Abu Dhabi
ABU DHABI - OCT 05: People tired of desperately trying to flag down a taxi can now order one from a 24-hour call centre.
Abu Dhabi’s taxi regulator, TransAD, yesterday officially launched the service for passengers across the emirate, a year after the newer silver taxis took to the streets and eight months after it unveiled plans for the call centre and a GPS tracking and dispatch system.
Khaled al Rashedi, the general manager of TransAD, said 1,300 of the emirate’s 3,000 silver taxis had been fitted with GPS-enabled data terminals that will show them the locations of waiting passengers. He added that the second phase of the plan, building a passenger database containing GPS locations of customers’ preferred pick-up spots, was under way.
“Now we have the system, we are going to start collecting data. We are going to analyse this data,” Mr Rashedi said.
Customers will be able to dial 600 53 53 53 and speak to an operator in Arabic or English to request that the nearest available cab be sent to them. The service will cost an extra Dh2.50 (US$0.61) between 6am and 10pm, and Dh3 during other hours.
The first time they phone the call centre, customers will be asked for their name, mobile number and location. An operator will then enter the passenger’s GPS co-ordinates into a database.The next time the customer orders a cab from the call centre, a dispatcher will send a message to a nearby available cab. If the driver accepts the job, they will be given the customer’s details, including telephone number and location on a GPS map.
Customers will also be given the driver’s name and mobile number. Mr Rashedi said the database would help better match the supply of taxis with demand. TransAD also plans to use the GPS data to track commuting patterns and keep tabs on drivers’ performance. The system will enable TransAD to register how fast the drivers drive and how many hours they work among other things, which could help determine whether their permits are renewed.
THE NATIONAL
Mega-mall opens with high hopes
DUBAI - NOV 05: It seemed to take just the blink of an eye for the frantic construction site that was Dubai Mall to transform into a bustling shopping and entertainment centre. After three years of anticipation, Emaar Properties opened the doors yesterday to one of the world’s largest malls, the centrepiece to its colossal Downtown Dubai project.
More than 600 retail shops were ready for business when the doors opened at 2pm. By early next year that figure will have risen to 1,200. From the start, visitors were free to visit the mall’s Olympic-size ice skating rink, the world’s largest indoor gold souk and its main attraction, the world’s largest aquarium and the adjoining Discovery Garden, soon to be home to 33,000 animals.
Construction crews and retailers have worked around the clock to have the centre ready for its soft opening. Even as customers were pouring in the doors yesterday, many retailers were still preparing stores, and construction crews were labouring away in the 14,000-space car park.
Yousif al Ali, the general manager of Dubai Mall, said the operators were confident the centre would yield higher revenues than any other shopping centre in the world, despite the global economic crisis pummelling the retail sectors of western countries and forcing tourists to trim travel plans.
“We are satisfied and feel this will not impact the mall,” said Mr Ali.“Business in Dubai is as usual and the growth in GDP is strong, which translates into higher purchasing power.”
Mr Ali said he expected 30 million visitors in the first year of trade, and, with a boost in population and 15 million tourists expected annually by 2015, that number was likely to grow.
Tourists flocked to the mall just minutes after the partial opening, many regarding it as an instant landmark.
“My parents only have one day left in town and now that the mall is open, of course they had to see it before leaving,” said Dennis Segeren, an architectural student from the Netherlands, who is studying in Dubai. “As for me, I came here two-and-a-half years ago for an internship when they were still building so I was really anxious to see the final product.”
A massive digital projection dome, complete with surround-sound, towers over the indoor gold souk. More than 220 of the region’s biggest gold and jewellery retailers are packed into the traditionally designed alleyways of the indoor market.
About 30 per cent of the retail shops in the mall are making their regional debut, including the French retailer Galeries Lafayette, the high-end US department store Bloomingdale’s, London’s renowned toy store Hamley’s, and the UK’s luxury supermarket Waitrose.
Many of the region’s well-established retailers were on hand to celebrate the long-awaited opening.
“I feel sure that every tourist that lands in Dubai or Abu Dhabi airport will be here,” said Nilesh Ved, the chairman of Apparel, the holding company for brands including Nine West, Aldo and Cold Stone Creamery. “We are really optimistic and expect it to be very successful.”
Spanning an area equivalent to 50 football fields at the base of Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, the mall boasts 3.77 million square feet of gross leasable area.
“It is so big, much bigger than anything I’ve ever seen in my country,” said Maria Micheli, a tourist from Greece who was visiting the mall with her husband.
“It is very huge, but the weather is so hot for much of the year so it is good to have a place indoors to bring the family,” said Ali al Amri, a resident of Abu Dhabi who was visiting the aquarium with his children.
The Aquarium and Discovery Centre has already won a place in the Guinness World Records for the largest acrylic panel, and sports the largest suspended panel of any aquarium in the world.
According to Damien Prendergast, the general manager of the Aquarium and Discovery Centre, maintenance for this sea world and miniature zoo cost about Dh5 million (US$1.3m) a year.
Postponements caused the mall to open more than two months behind schedule. The latest rescheduling was announced just hours before last Thursday’s scheduled launch. The mall’s executives blamed construction issues for the delays. Emaar had originally set a date of Aug 28 for the soft opening.
THE NATIONAL
Stiff fines threatened for breaking fire rules
SHARJAH - NOV 05: The new rules were prompted by fires that destroyed billions of dirhams worth of property. They included a large fire at the Emirates Refinery Company on Sept 20, which forced parts of Port Khalid to close temporarily.
Hareeb al Tunaiji, the head of an inspection committee administered by Sharjah Civil Defence and Sharjah Municipality, said the committee had begun a campaign to rid the industrial areas of safety violations. Inspectors are moving through buildings this month, issuing many more fines and warnings than they did in October.
“Our approach initially is that of warning,” Mr Tunaiji said. “We ask the violator to sign an agreement with us that would stop the violations in 15 days.”
If violators did not follow the regulations, the municipality would cut off water and power supplies and then issue fines. If the violation continues, the committee could withdraw a company’s trading licence and ban it from obtaining one in the future.
Mr Tunaiji said safety violations had more than tripled in the emirate in the past two months. Committee statistics show that more than 2,400 fines were issued in October, compared with 766 in September. Officials issued more warnings, too: more than 2,300 in October, up from about 1,400 in September.
While making their rounds, inspectors have had to seek out some owners who knew their businesses violated safety regulations.
“We found one man who tried to hide himself in a container because he also didn’t have documents,” Mr Tunaiji said. “As we opened it he was breathing profusely. Another man hid a gas cylinder in a refrigerator because it didn’t meet safety norms.”
THE NATIONAL
First electric car hits Dubai roads
DUBAI - NOV 05: IN A significant step towards fulfilling Dubai's vision for sustainable transport, Dubai roads welcomed for the first time, fully electric cars recently, making it the first city in the Gulf to license electric cars.
The electric cars, licensed to Dubai-based business conglomerate SS Lootah Group, are the latest addition to the company fleet as part of its "Green Car" programme.
The programme, conceived 3 years ago, addresses the mobility needs of the company with minimum impact on the environment, as part of the Group's drive towards integrating sustainability as a core driver of business strategy and objectives, in line with the vision of the nation's leadership.
Using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), the cleanest burning fossil fuel, hybrid vehicles, high-mileage vehicles and fleet modernisation are some features of the programme.
Nasser Lootah, director, SS Lootah Group commented, "The 'Green Car Programme' has seen a great progression since inception starting from conversion of part of our fleet to Compressed Natural Gas, followed by the use of hybrid cars and now, electric cars. We are currently testing the performance and specifications of the electric car to suit the Gulf conditions and the response has been very positive so far."
Engineer Yahya Lootah, vice-chairman, CEO, SS Lootah Group praised the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai a model city of the future and commented, "We are committed to contribute to the vision of our Leadership towards making Dubai sustainable in every respect including mainstream transport. We are confident that the electric car will be a viable alternative for commuting within the city and play a significant role in reducing pollution."
GULF TODAY