Dubai: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has initiated inspections of health-care facilities called ‘Weyak’, meaning ‘with you’, to ensure international benchmarks are being followed in maintaining quality at health-care facilties. This is in addition to annual and surprise inspections that are already in place.
In order to educate health facilities about these inspections, DHA’s Regulation Department invited 1041 health-care facilities in Dubai, who are part of the phase one implementation, to attend a workshop about the aims of these inspections.
Of the 1,041 health-care facilities, 668 are polyclinics, 193 general clinics, 48 dental clinics and 132 speciality clinics.
Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, Director of Health Regulation and Dubai Medical Tourism Project at DHA, said: “As part of DHA’s commitment to achieve the highest quality of medical services and to keep up with the comprehensive and integrated development in the medical field, we decided to implement developmental inspections.
“One week before visiting any health facility for developmental inspections, we will provide them with a self-assessment checklist and, during the inspections, our team will provide necessary support and guidance to ensure they achieve all the points mentioned in the checklist. The advice is free and after the inspections, we will regularly follow up with health facilities and also provide them with a progress report. Health-care facilities will have a time-frame to adhere to the requirements. They will not receive any penalty for violations during these inspections, unless the violation falls under the major category.”
In the first phase, these inspections will be for polyclinics, general clinics, dental clinics and speciality clinics. In the second phase, these inspections will be conducted for hospitals and in the third phase the inspections will be carried out for pharmacies, rehabilitation centres and diagnostic centres.
Dr Layla reiterated that annual regular inspections as well as surprise inspections will continue.
