DHA scraps appointment system for families

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) primary healthcare centres will abolish the system of appointments and adopt a system of walk-in consultation for patients who require family medicine services.

The move is in line with the directives of Essa Al Maidoor, Director-General of the DHA, to provide an easy access to primary healthcare, which is considered to be frontline care and is the first point of contact for patients.

Dr Ahmad Al Kalban, CEO of Primary Healthcare at the DHA, said: “All 14 DHA primary healthcare centres will adopt this new system from April 10. This decision has been taken to encourage patients to visit family medicine specialists and to consider them as their first point of contact. In addition, the new system will help reduce waiting time as well as provide easy access to primary healthcare services.”

He added that the decision was taken after Al Maidoor inspected DHA health centres including Nad Al Hamar and Al Safa where discussions with medical practitioners and patients revealed that there is a need to enhance access to primary healthcare services particularly in the field of family medicine.

The new system will help reduce the waiting time and consultation slots of healthcare practitioners will be optimized as the walk-in method eliminates the problem of last-minute cancellations by patients.

All 14 primary healthcare centres have family medicine specialists based on the capacity of the centre and range from 4 doctors to 6 doctors. Each doctor can see 25 to 30 patients per day and therefore the centres will be able to cope with the demand.

For specialized services such as ophthalmology, dermatology, child health, gynecology, maternity and geriatric care which are available at the primary healthcare centres, the system of appointments will continue.

Kalban stated that emergency patients will be seen immediately and will get priority.

He added that dental emergencies will also be seen at any time during the working hours of the centres.

He added that the decision to abolish the appointment system for the family medicine specialty will definitely encourage people to regularly visit their primary healthcare physician which is a key component for early detection of diseases and is in line with international methods of preventive care.

DHA primary healthcare centres are located across the different geographical areas of Dubai. The working hours are Sunday to Thursday from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm. On Fridays, Al Safa and Al Mamzhar health centres are open in the evening from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm and on Saturdays all the DHA primary healthcare centres are open from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm.

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