Sharjah 24: As part of its efforts to enhance public awareness about its services, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) urged community members to take advantage of the electronic system for reporting healthcare malpractices in private facilities.

The service aims to ensure that healthcare providers exercise their role in accordance with the policies and regulations governing the work of private health facilities.

This comes as part of the ministry's plans for developing E-services, which aim to improve the quality of the health system, innovate smart solutions, and adhere to quality systems.

The E-complaint system makes it easier to decide on medical and administrative complaints about private health facilities and their medical staff. The complainant can track the status and progress of his complaint until the final outcome following the end of investigations.

The new system takes into account the ease of use, impartiality, confidentiality, and reliability of the information provided by the complainant, which contributes to improving the procedures to handle the complaint and obtaining a reference to its data to enhance transparency and credibility.

Enhancing compliance
Abeer Adel, Head of licensing section at MoHAP, said: "The e-Complaint system over the malpractices of the private medical facilities and their staff is part of MoHAP's e-services package, which aim to improve the quality of health system, innovate smart solutions, and adhere to quality systems, in order to develop services and contribute effectively to the development of public policies and strategies that lead to the happiness of community members.

The Ministry is committed to providing high-quality healthcare services and dealing with any malpractices or medical errors of the private facilities, if proven, accurately and transparently, Adel underlined.

She added: "To that end, the ministry has provided a legislative umbrella that includes clear controls and requirements regarding medical practices in accordance with the Federal Decree-Law Concerning Medical Liability No. (4) of 2016,

Adel hinted that the number of complaints is within the lowest global rates in developed countries, thanks to the strict standards and requirements followed by the Ministry while issuing licenses to private health facilities. Added to that are the periodic inspection and monitoring campaigns over the performance of these facilities, and their positive cooperation to ensure quality.

Impartial medical committee
Dr. Hessa Ali Mubarak, Director of the Control, Audit and Inspection Department, said: "The new system is an important asset to the existing procedures, as it eases the handling of complaints for all stakeholders to achieve the health compliance of private medical facilities. 

"It allows all individuals, whether residents or visitors, to file a complaint on private health facilities together with all the supporting evidence, if any," she added. 

She explained that a neutral medical committee will accordingly be formed to investigate the incident by the Medical Liability Committee and will hear both parties, as well as assess the medical procedures followed by the doctor.

"A report is then submitted to the Medical Licensing Committee at MoHAP to take an action and address all parties concerned with the outcome of the complaint" she added.

She further said that private health facilities are constantly monitored to ensure that there are no wrongdoings and to reduce cases of medical negligence and errors, which lead to the issuance of penalties and fines, and even the final closure.

Doctors who commit medical errors are usually referred to the Medical Licensing Committee to issue penalties according to Federal Law No. (5) of 2019 Concerning the Regulation of Practice of Human Medicine Profession. The Medical Liability Committee in charge of considering medical complaints will feature experts in various medical fields to decide on the submitted medical complaints and issue reports that can be appealed by the complainant within 30 days of its issuance. In this case, the challenged reports will be referred to the Higher Medical Liability Committee for re-investigation.