Dubai Health Authority launches two-day interactive forum to develop Dubai Health Strategy.

• Health professionals from the public and private sector including hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical industry, health insurance, medical equipment and technology firms etc. took  part in interactive forum.
• Forum provides a platform for discuss initiatives that are needed for the health sector.
• Aim of the strategy is to effectively cater to the healthcare needs of the population, now and in future.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, September 16, 2015: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) held today a two-day Interactive Health Forum known as ‘Dubai Health… Towards the Future’, at Madinat  Jumeirah to discuss the development of the Dubai Heath Strategy.

More than 90 healthcare professionals from the government and private sector including hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical industry, health insurance, medical equipment and technology firms etc. attended the  forum.

HE Humaid Obaid Al Qatami, Chairman of the Board of the DHA inaugurated the forum and said:

“The central objective of a robust health system is to ensure that through various preventive and educational initiatives, its population achieves and maintains an improved health status and that in times of need, everyone has easy access to the highest quality  of health services. To achieve this, a 360 degrees approach is needed across all areas of health care. This platform provides us with an opportunity to actively engage with the health sector and get their inputs for the formulation of the health strategy.”

“Members of the health sector understand the nuances of the sector in Dubai and bring with them years of experience. This is an opportunity for them to provide us with initiatives that they feel will bring about a positive and meaningful transformation of the health sector.”

As part of the forum, members of the health sector were divided into eight groups and each team discussed three topics.

Al Qatami said, “Prior to this forum, the DHA  held discussions with  key members of the public and private sector to analyse both  the strengths and existing gaps in the health sector. Based on this, we  decided 12 topics to be discussed  for the formulation of the Dubai Health Sector strategy”.

The topics include prevention, service delivery and continuum of care, excellence in quality and KPI measurement, medical protocol, competitiveness and investment, governance, efficiency and sustainability, medical education and research, insurance and health financing, talent and work force, IT and health technology and medical tourism and patient experience.

During the forum, members discussed initiatives that will help strengthen the health strategy. All the suggestions and feedback from the health sector will be analysed.

This forum is part of the second phase of the stakeholder engagement.

In the first phase, which concluded today, the DHA launched an active employee engagement initiative known as the Virtual Interactive Health Forum to provide a platform for each and every employee at the DHA to give their ideas and suggested initiatives for the Dubai Health Strategy.

DHA employees have posted hundreds of initiatives.

In the third phase, which will be announced shortly, every person in Dubai will have an opportunity to directly communicate with the DHA and provide their feedback and suggested initiatives for the Dubai Health Strategy.