Clinics to opt out of health reforms

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Primary care clinics in Dubai plan to opt out of the new healthcare reforms because they do not want the extra work.

Clinic owners across Dubai have said they will opt out of the primary care scheme offered under the government’s new healthcare reforms because they can’t accommodate the extra workload.

Practices dealing with high volumes of middle- to lower-income groups said they were already overcrowded and did not have the physician manpower or space to take on more patients.

Meanwhile, clinics offering top-end services, where patients routinely receive 20-minute consultations, said they would opt out too. Physicians are concerned patient care will suffer if they cut appointment times to cater to more people.

Their comments coincide with the publication this month of government-issued briefing notes for primary care clinics signing up to the scheme.

Under Dubai's health insurance plan, announced in June, all those working in the emirate will be able to access free basic medical care.

Clinics already licensed by the Department of Health and Medical Services (DoHMS) will be automatically registered as Outpatient Care Practices (OCP) to deliver this. But they can choose to opt out.

Clinics will receive an, as yet undisclosed, annual fee for each registered patient, and will be allowed to charge a minimum co-pay of AED25 per patient consultation.

However, Dr Joseph, owner of the 25 year old Joseph Medical Clinic in Karama, which has 200,000 patients on its books and charges a minimum of AED50 to see a GP, said he would not be part of the proposed scheme.

The clinic could not cope with any more patients, new GPs from India could not afford to live in Dubai and his staff's wages had trebled in the past two years as a result of competition from new hospitals, he told Medical Times.

"For a AED30 procedure the hospital will charge AED200, so that's the difference. My staffs are all going to the hospitals, so I have to reach the same standard [of pay]."

"Most probably I cannot take this up because we do not have the space or the doctors," he concluded.

Dr Michael Loubser, medical director of the Infinity Health Clinic in Al Wasl, said his clinic would also opt out initially. "If we were forced to do this we would not be able to work, because we are not prepared to go down to two or three minute consultations."

Dubai Health Authority (DHA), which is implemeting the scheme, is carrying out quality checks of all clinics.

A list of every participating clinics will be available next month on the DHA's website.

However, the exact fees clinics will receive per registered patient, and the definition of basic care are still undecided, the DHA said.

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