Arabian Business, 5 February 2024: Abu Dhabi’s Health Department has announced it has closed numerous facilities for violations of healthcare laws and regulations.

It has fined one healthcare centre one million AED. It has also banned it from offering dental services across all its branches because of suspected fraudulent activities aimed at misappropriating public funds.

Investigations into the centre are ongoing.

Eight healthcare facilities have been shut down. They include an occupational medicine centre, a laboratory and a medical centre.

They were found to have violated Federal Law No. 14/2014 relating to the prevention of infectious diseases.

They were also found to have failed to have complied with electronic reporting regulations and failed to follow the Department’s public health statistics reporting standards.

In addition, four home care facilities were closed for failing to comply with the Department’s standards and regulations governing home care services and committing other violations.

These included failing to obtain proper patient consent and provide comprehensive explanations of treatment procedures and associated risks.

They were also not approved to offer secondment contracts between facilities.

In addition, they were found to have failed to have failed to provide essential medicines, medical supplies, or devices for emergencies and the healthcare facilities were used for unauthorised purposes by unlicensed individuals.

Concerns about the lack of essential medicines, medical supplies and devices for emergency cases at these facilities were also received.

The facilities also failed to adhere to safety procedures and infection prevention measures and inadequately maintained supplies, handled and disposed of medical waste improperly and insufficiently stored patient medical records.

A dental clinic has been closed too for multiple violations, including the employment of unlicensed healthcare professionals, non-compliance with sterilisation protocols and using non-sterile medical supplies.

It was also found to be deficient in recording comprehensive medical histories, procedures, examinations, interventions, or treatments in patient files and was operating in a different field to the one it was licensed for.

Also reported in Al Bayan on 4 February 2024. For the full story, click here.

For more news and content, try Lexis Middle East. Click on lexis.ae/demo to begin your free trial of Lexis® Middle East platform.

You can also explore the legal landscape by subscribing to our Weekly Newsletter.

Want to learn more about Lexis® Middle East? Visit, https://www.lexis.ae/lexis-middle-east-law/.