Dubai rolls out e-licences for healthcare workers

Dubai Healthcare City Authority (DHCA) have launched e-licences for healthcare professionals as part of its measures to support these frontline health workers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The virus  has already infected 4,933 people in the UAE and claimed 28 lives.

As part of the DHCA’s initiatives to combat the spread of the virus, physicians, nurses and allied healthcare professionals are permitted to work in multiple facilities across the UAE.

Also, several professionals are volunteering in roles that utilise their medical background in addition to their current scope of practice, noted a DHCA press release.

With the introduction of the secure and tamper-proof e-license, healthcare professionals will benefit from reduced administrative requirements such as shorter wait time to receive a printed license, instant updates when a new permanent employer is added or license is renewed, and no fees for printing and delivery.

Apart from the e-licence, DHCA has introduced other updates to ensure that professionals can easily renew their licence.

To support its over 4,500 professionals, Dubai Healthcare City Authority – Regulatory (DHCR), the regulator of the Dubai Healthcare City free zone, now accepts all online Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training and Basic Life Support (BLS) courses, thus making it easier for the healthcare workers to obtain this necessary training they require to secure their licences.

“By introducing such measures we are reducing the administrative burden on doctors, nurses and allied professionals in the free zone who risk their lives to keep us safe as well as professionals who are licensed to work in branches of DHCC-based clinical facilities,” said Jamal Abdulsalam, CEO of DHCA.

The e-licence initiative, he added, is in line with the UAE government’s digital transformation efforts and is a crucial aspect of ensuring business continuity as the process is completed entirely online and without healthcare workers visiting the offices.

Earlier this month, global business networking platform LinkedIn announced that it would offer free hiring resources for ‘frontline roles’ in the UAE.

Read: LinkedIn to offer free recruiting tools in the UAE for people with ‘critical skills’

For medical professionals, LinkedIn said that it would promote those roles on its Jobs page. Frontline healthcare jobs for professionals such as doctors and nurses, will be automatically added to a list of ‘urgent’ jobs.

LinkedIn members who have relevant skills that match these available roles will also receive automatic real-time alerts and emails to inform them of the opening so that they can apply immediately.