Abu Dhabi: In a circular issued by the Ministry of Health (MoH), doctors in the public sector who wish to travel or take days off during the Eid holidays must submit an official request to the hospital's regional manager.
"Doctors are supposed to be on call 24 hours a day during Eid vacation. We have a lot of patients admitted to hospitals during Eid and it's a doctor's responsibility to be around. If he wants to take days off he must find a replacement first, then submit a written formal request to a regional manager," said Dr Abdul Gaffar, Undersecretary for Curative Medicine, MoH.
Doctors from all specialities, namely general practitioners (GP), pathologists, paediatricians, orthopaedists, radiologists and many more are to abide by this circular. Any doctor who fails to follow this rule risks having his/her licence taken away.
