Executive Council Resolution No.
(49) of 2024
Regulating the Practice of
Health Professions and Health Activities
in the Emirate of Dubai[1]
ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
We,
Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of
the Executive Council,
After perusal of:
Federal Law No. (14) of 2014 Concerning the Control of
Communicable Diseases, and its Implementing Bylaw and its amendments;
Federal Law No. (4) of 2015 Concerning Private Healthcare
Facilities, its Implementing Bylaw, and their respective amendments;
Federal Law by Decree No. (4) of 2016 Concerning Medical
Liability and its amendments, and its Implementing Bylaw;
Federal Law No. (2) of 2019 Concerning the Use of
Information and Communications Technology in Health-related Fields, and its
Implementing Bylaw;
Federal Law No. (5) of 2019 Regulating the Practice of the
Human Medicine Profession and its Implementing Bylaw;
Federal Law No. (7) of 2019 Concerning Assisted Reproductive
Technology (ART) and its amendments, and its Implementing Bylaw;
Federal Law No. (8) of 2019 Concerning Medical Products,
Pharmaceutical Profession, and Pharmaceutical Establishments and its
amendments; and its Implementing Bylaw;
Federal Law No. (13) of 2020 Concerning Public Health;
Federal Law by Decree No. (30) of 2021 Concerning Combating
Narcotics and Psychotropic Drugs, and its amendments;
Federal Law No. (6) of 2023 Concerning the Practice of
Certain Health Professions by Non-physicians and Non-pharmacists;
Federal Law by Decree No. (25) of 2023 Concerning the
Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues;
Cabinet Resolution No. (20) of 2017 Approving Unified
Standards for the Licensing of Health Professionals in the UAE and its
amendments;
Cabinet Resolution No. (47) of 2018 Approving Unified
National Standards for Hospitals;
Law No. (14) of 2009 Concerning the Pricing of Government
Services in the Emirate of Dubai and its amendments;
Law No. (9) of 2011 Concerning the Dubai Healthcare City;
Law No. (1) of 2016 Concerning the Financial Regulations of
the Government of Dubai, its Implementing Bylaw, and their amendments;
Law No. (8) of 2016 Regulating the Grant of Law Enforcement
Capacity in the Government of Dubai and its Implementing Bylaw;
Law No. (6) of 2018 Concerning the Dubai Health Authority
and its amendments;
Law No. (5) of 2021 Concerning the Dubai International
Financial Centre;
Law No. (3) of 2022 Concerning the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities in the Emirate of Dubai, and its Implementing Bylaw and its
amendments;
Law No. (26) of 2023 Concerning the Executive Council of the
Emirate of Dubai;
Decree No. (22) of 2009 Concerning Special Development Zones
in the Emirate of Dubai;
Executive Council Resolution No. (32) of 2012 Regulating the
Practice of Health Professions in the Emirate of Dubai; and
The legislation establishing and regulating free zones in
the Emirate of Dubai,
Do
hereby issue this Resolution.
The
following words and expressions, wherever mentioned in this Resolution, will
have the meaning indicated opposite each of them unless the context implies
otherwise:
|
UAE: |
The United Arab Emirates. |
|
Emirate: |
The Emirate of Dubai. |
|
DHA: |
The Dubai Health Authority. |
|
Director General: |
The director general of the DHA. |
|
Healthcare Facility: |
An establishment licensed by the DHA to conduct Health
Activities in the Emirate and to provide individuals with preventive,
therapeutic, and convalescent Healthcare services. |
|
Any of the
activities approved by the DHA and related to the preventive, therapeutic,
and convalescent Healthcare services provided to patients. |
|
|
Health Profession: |
Any of the healthcare professions or allied professions
specified by the federal, and local legislation in force in the Emirate. |
|
Health Professional: |
A natural person authorised by the DHA to practise
the Health Profession within the Emirate. |
|
Medical Practices Committee: |
A committee formed hereunder to perform the duties
assigned to it pursuant to this Resolution and the resolutions issued in
pursuance hereof, including considering and determining Licence applications. |
|
Medical Grievances Committee: |
A committee formed to consider and determine the
grievances filed with it in accordance with this Resolution. |
|
Licence: |
This includes: 1. the document issued by the DHA authorising a
Healthcare Facility to conduct Health Activities within the Emirate; and 2. the document issued by the DHA authorising a Health
Professional to practise the Health Profession within the Emirate. |
|
Health Promotion: |
The dissemination of information or data, through
any print, audio, visual, or electronic means, for the purpose of promoting
Healthcare services or any matter related to human health or the Healthcare
sector in the Emirate. |
|
Digital Channels: |
The websites, smart applications, and digital media
adopted by the DHA to provide its services under this Resolution. |
1.
all
facilities
engaged in practising Health Activities across the Emirate, including in
Special Development Zones and free zones, such as the Dubai International
Financial Centre; and
2.
any
person
practising the Health Profession within Government Healthcare Facilities,
Private Healthcare Facilities, or any other Healthcare Facilities.
b.
Notwithstanding
the provisions of paragraph (a) of this Article, the provisions of this
Resolution prescribing penalties and punitive measures do not apply to the
Government Entities engaged in practising Health Activities in the Emirate
pursuant to their establishing or governing legislation. However, the
provisions of this Resolution apply to the extent that they do not conflict with
the provisions of such legislation.
c.
This
Resolution
does not apply to federal government entities or to their affiliated Healthcare
Facilities and establishments that are engaged in practising Health Activities
within the Emirate.
This Resolution aims to:
1.
establish a high-quality, efficient,
integrated, and comprehensive health system that ensures the provision of
optimal Healthcare services for community members;
2.
regulate the practice of the Health Profession
and the conduct of Health Activities within the Emirate, with a view to
enhancing competitiveness, operational efficiency, and quality of Healthcare
services;
3.
enhance the health and safety of
community members and protect them from unhealthy practices; and
4.
promote the principles of
transparency, justice, legal accountability in the Health Sector in the
Emirate.
The DHA will exercise all
duties and powers related to regulating, licensing, auditing, and inspecting Health
Service Providers in the Emirate. In particular, the DHA will have the
duties and powers to:
1.
approve and develop health policies
and standards, and the bylaws and regulations governing Healthcare Facilities
and Health Professionals;
2.
receive, consider, and determine the
Licence applications submitted by Healthcare Facilities to conduct Health Activities,
in accordance with the rules, terms, and procedures stipulated in this
Resolution, the resolutions issued in pursuance hereof, and other legislation
in force in the Emirate;
3.
receive, consider, and determine
applications from individuals seeking authorisation to practise the Health Profession,
in accordance with the rules, terms, and procedures stipulated in this
Resolution, the resolutions issued in pursuance hereof, and other legislation
in force in the Emirate;
4.
monitor and inspect the work of Health
Professionals and individuals conducting Health Activities to verify their
compliance with the obligations and rules stipulated in this Resolution, the
resolutions issued in pursuance hereof, and other legislation in force in the
Emirate, as well as with the relevant standards and bylaws adopted by the DHA;
5.
investigate the complaints filed
with the DHA against Health Professionals and individuals conducting Health
Activities, as well as the complaints referred to it by the competent judicial bodies
and Government Entities; and take necessary actions in respect of these
complaints, including imposing administrative penalties and measures against
violators;
6.
conduct clinical audits of medical
records and refer any identified violations to the Medical Practices Committee
to take the necessary action in respect thereof;
7.
refer the decisions issued by the
Medical Liability Committee, formed at the DHA under the above-mentioned
Federal Law by Decree No. (4) of 2016, together with the complaints filed by
Patients or their representatives, or referred to the DHA by the competent
judicial bodies and Government Entities to the Medical Practices Committee to
take the necessary action in respect thereof; and follow up the implementation
of these decisions;
8.
conduct quality control of Health
Information and Data entered, stored, processed, generated, transferred, or
exchanged through Electronic Systems, Digital Channels, or similar platforms;
9.
maintain a database of the names of Health
Professionals and Healthcare Facilities operating in the Emirate, and of the Health
Activities and Health Professions they are authorised to practise;
10. coordinate
with federal and local government entities on the matters related to the
practice of the Health Profession and the conduct of Health Activities in the
Emirate; and
11. exercise
any other duties or powers required for the achievement of the objectives of
this Resolution, as assigned to it by the Chairman of the Executive Council or
pursuant to the legislation in force in the Emirate.
a.
One
or more committees named the “Medical Practices Committee” will be formed within
the DHA pursuant to a resolution of the Director General. The Medical Practices
Committee will be comprised of a chairman, a vice chairman, and a number of
specialised and experienced members, selected from among the DHA employees or
other persons.
b.
The
resolution
forming the Medical Practices Committee will determine its terms of reference,
the procedures for holding its meetings and passing its resolutions and
recommendations, and any other matters related to its governance.
The Medical Practices Committee will have the jurisdiction to
consider and determine all applications and matters referred to it by the
Director General, particularly in respect of:
1.
applications
for Licences to conduct Health Activities;
2.
applications
for Licences to practise the Health Profession;
3.
applications
for reinstatement of the Licences of Healthcare Facilities and Health Professionals
whose Licences have been revoked as an administrative penalty;
4.
imposing
the penalties and administrative measures prescribed by this Resolution on the
perpetrators of the prohibited acts set out in Schedule (4) attached hereto;
and
5.
exercising
any other duties or powers assigned to it by the Director General.
a.
No
natural or legal person may establish a facility to conduct Health Activities
within the Emirate unless that
facility is licensed by the Concerned Entities and has obtained a Licence from
the DHA in accordance with the provisions of this Resolution, the resolutions
issued in pursuance hereof, and other legislation in force in the Emirate.
b.
No
natural
person may practise the Health Profession within the Emirate unless he has
obtained a Licence in accordance with the provisions of this Resolution, the
resolutions issued in pursuance hereof, and other legislation in force in the
Emirate.
c.
No
Healthcare Facility may engage a Health Professional or Visiting Physician who
is not authorised by the DHA to work
at that facility.
d.
No
Health Professional
or Healthcare Facility may conduct any Healthcare Activities not authorised
under the Licence issued to Health Professional
or Healthcare Facility, without first obtaining the relevant approval from the
DHA.
To be
issued with a Licence, a Healthcare Facility must:
1.
not have been suspended from
conducting any Health Activities for any reason unless it has been reinstated;
2.
hold a valid licence issued by the
Concerned Entities in the Emirate where it conducts its activities on a
commercial or for-profit basis;
3.
have the experience and
qualifications required to conduct the relevant Health Activities in accordance
with the classification adopted by the DHA in this respect;
4.
have adequate professional staff as
required to conduct the relevant Health Activities in accordance with its
classification as adopted by the DHA;
5.
pay the fees prescribed by the
legislation in force in the Emirate; and
6.
meet any other conditions or
requirements as prescribed by the DHA and published on the Digital Channels.
a.
When
issuing
a Licence to a Healthcare Facility, the following procedures will be followed:
1.
A
Licence application will be submitted to the DHA on the form it prescribes for
this purpose, accompanied
by the documents outlined on Digital Channels.
2.
The
DHA
will consider the Licence application, and the documents attached thereto, to
verify that it meets the conditions and requirements prescribed by this
Resolution and the resolutions issued in pursuance hereof; and will issue an
initial approval within thirty (30) working days from the date of its
submission. Where the application is rejected, the rejection decision must be
reasoned.
3.
Upon
receiving an initial approval, the applicant must satisfy all Licence
requirements
within one (1) year from the date on which the initial approval is issued. The
DHA may extend this time frame for the same period based on a written request
from the applicant stating the reasons for extension, subject to addressing the
relevant remarks of the DHA.
4.
The
DHA will, upon the request of the applicant and within the time frame
prescribed by sub-paragraph
(a)(3) of this Article, inspect the Healthcare Facility and perform on-site
audit to verify that it meets all the relevant conditions and requirements for
conducting Health Activities for which the Licence is requested, as outlined in
the Digital Channels. In light of the aforementioned, the DHA may take any of
the following measures:
a.
Where
the facility fulfils all the conditions and requirements prescribed by the DHA,
the Licence will be issued to it.
b.
Where
the
facility fails to fulfil the conditions and requirements prescribed by the DHA,
a grace period not exceeding sixty (60) days will be granted to the facility to
fulfil these conditions and requirements, failing which the initial approval
will be revoked and the concerned Government Entities will be notified to
revoke any licences issued to the facility.
b.
The
procedures
for obtaining Licences by local Government Healthcare Facilities to conduct Health
Activities will be prescribed by a resolution to be issued by the Director
General in this respect.
To be issued with a Licence, a Health Professional
must:
1.
not
have been barred from practising the Health Profession for
any reason, unless he has been reinstated;
2.
hold the qualifications and
competencies required to practise one of the Health Professions outlined on the
Digital Channels;
3.
fulfil the requirements and
standards set out in the Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements published on
the Digital Channels;
4.
be medically fit;
5.
demonstrate knowledge of Public
Health and public safety rules;
6.
be of good character and conduct;
7.
pay the fees prescribed by the
legislation in force in the Emirate; and
8.
meet any other technical conditions
and requirements prescribed by the DHA and published on the Digital Channels.
In issuing
a Licence to a Health Professional, the following procedures will apply:
1.
A
Licence
application will be submitted to the DHA on the form it prescribes for this
purpose, accompanied by the documents outlined on the Digital Channels.
2.
The
DHA will consider the Licence application to verify that it meets the
conditions and requirements prescribed by this Resolution and the resolutions
issued in pursuance hereof, and will issue its decision to accept or reject the
application within thirty (30) days from the date of its submission.
3. Where a Licence application
is rejected, the rejection decision must be reasoned.
a.
A
Licence will be valid for a period of one (1) year, renewable for the same
period upon an application submitted to the DHA by the Licence holder. The Licence
will be renewed in accordance with the conditions, rules, procedures, and
standards prescribed by the relevant resolution of the Director General.
b.
Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph
(a) of this Article, the DHA may:
1.
issue
the Health Professional with a Licence valid for a period not exceeding three
(3) years; or
2.
issue
the Health Professional with a Temporary Licence to Practise that is valid for a period not exceeding six
(6) months, in accordance with the conditions, rules, procedures, and standards
prescribed by the relevant resolution of the Director General.
a.
In
addition to the cases stipulated in the legislation in force in the Emirate and
in this Resolution, a Licence will be revoked in any of the following two (2)
cases:
1.
where
the Licence is not renewed within three (3) months from its expiry date, unless
the Licence holder provides a valid reason acceptable to the DHA. In this case,
the Licence holder will be granted an additional grace period of three (3)
months for renewal. If the renewal is not completed within this grace period,
the Licence will be revoked; or
2.
where
the Licence holder ceases to meet any of the conditions and requirements prescribed
for practising the Health Profession or Health Activities.
b.
The
DHA
will inform the Health Professional or Healthcare Facility of its decision to
revoke the Licence, including the reasons for revocation, within ten (10) days
from the revocation date.
A Healthcare Facility will conduct Health
Activities, and a Health Professional will practise the Profession, only in
accordance with the terms of their respective Licences. The Healthcare Facility
and the Health Professional must fully comply with the scope of Licence, as well
as the conditions, rules, procedures, standards, and protocols adopted by the
DHA in respect of practising the Health Profession and Health Activities.
A Health Professional or Healthcare Facility may apply
for the reinstatement of a Licence that has been cancelled under the provisions
of this Resolution, subject to meeting the relevant conditions, rules, and
procedures prescribed by the DHA, and in accordance with the following time
frames:
1.
following
the lapse of two (2) years from the date of cancellation of the previous Licence,
where it is the result of a revocation by the Medical Practices Committee;
2.
at
any
date following the cancellation of the Licence, where it has been cancelled
upon the request of the Health Professional or Healthcare Facility;
3.
at
any
date following the fulfilment of the conditions or requirements prescribed for
practising the Health Profession or Health Activities other than those cases
stipulated in paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article.
A Healthcare Facility or Health Professional may not assign the Licence
to a third party without first obtaining the relevant approval of the DHA. This
approval will be issued in accordance with the requirements and procedures
prescribed by the relevant resolution of the Director General.
In return for issuing Licences and providing
other services pursuant to this Resolution and the resolutions issued in pursuance hereof,
the DHA will collect the fees set out in Schedules (1), (2), and (3) attached
hereto.
The acts set out in
Schedules (4) and (5) attached hereto are hereby prohibited.
a.
Without
prejudice to any stricter penalty stipulated in any other resolution, a Person
who commits any of the acts
set out in Schedule (4) attached hereto will be punished by any of the
following administrative penalties:
1.
a
written
warning;
2.
downgrading the privileges or the professional
medical classification specified for the Health Professional in the Licence;
3.
suspending the Health Professional
from practising the Health Profession for a period not exceeding one (1) year;
4.
revoking the Licence issued to the Health
Professional;
5.
closing the Healthcare Facility
fully or partially for a period not exceeding six (6) months;
6.
cancelling authorisation to practise
certain Health Activities under the Licence issued to the Healthcare Facility;
7.
revoking the Licence issued for the
Healthcare Facility;
8.
imposing a fine of no less than two
thousand dirhams (AED 2,000.00) and no more than one hundred thousand dirhams
(AED 100,000.00), where the violation is committed by a Health Professional.
The amount of fine will be determined based on the severity and gravity of the
committed violation; or
9.
imposing a fine of no less than five
thousand dirhams (AED 5,000.00) and no more than two hundred thousand dirhams
(AED 200,000.00), where the violation is committed by a Healthcare Facility.
The amount of fine will be determined based on the severity and gravity of the
committed violation.
b.
The
DHA will
notify the competent authorities upon imposing any of the administrative
penalties prescribed in sub-paragraphs (a)(5), (a)(6), and (a)(7) of this
Article.
c.
In
addition
to the administrative penalties stipulated in paragraph (a) of this Article,
the DHA may take one or more of the following measures against a violating Health
Professional:
1.
require him to attend specific training
courses within a specific time frame;
2.
require him to work under the
supervision of another Health Professional for a period not exceeding one (1)
year; and/ or
3.
reassess him and take the necessary
action based on the outcomes of the reassessment.
d.
The
administrative penalties and measures referred to in paragraphs (a) and (c) of
this Article may be imposed
in any particular order.
e.
Without
prejudice to any stricter penalty stipulated in any other resolution, a Person
who commits any of the acts set out in Schedule (5) attached hereto will be
punished by the fine indicated opposite that act.
f.
Upon
repetition of any of the violations set out in Schedule (5) attached to this
Resolution within one (1) year from the date of the previous violation, the
amount of the fine will be doubled. A doubled fine must not exceed two hundred
thousand dirhams (AED 200,000.00) for Health Professionals, and four hundred
thousand dirhams (AED 400,000.00) for Healthcare Facilities.
The DHA employees nominated pursuant to
a resolution of the Director General will have the capacity of Law Enforcement Officers to record the acts
committed in breach of the provisions of this Resolution and the resolutions
issued in pursuance hereof. For this purpose, they may access Healthcare
Facilities; review their records, registers, and documents; conduct inspection
and oversight of Health Professionals; issue the necessary violation reports;
and, where required, seek the assistance of the concerned Government Entities
in the Emirate, including police personnel.
a.
The
Director General is hereby vested with the authority to impose administrative
penalties on any Healthcare Facility or Health Professional who commits any of
the acts set out in Schedule (5) attached hereto.
b.
The
Medical Practices Committee is hereby vested with the jurisdiction to impose
administrative penalties and measures in any of the following two (2) cases:
1.
where the committed violation
involves any of the prohibited acts set out in Schedule (4) attached to this
Resolution; or
2.
upon repetition of any of the
violations set out in Schedule (5) attached to this Resolution within one (1)
year from the date of the previous violation.
a.
The
Director General and the Medical Practices Committee may issue a decision on the
full or partial closure of a Healthcare Facility as a precautionary measure for
a period not exceeding three (3) months pending the completion of an investigation into the violation
attributed to the facility or any of its employees. This closure may be
extended for the same period, provided that the extension decision is reasoned
and the competent authorities are notified.
b.
The
Director General and the Medical Practices Committee
may issue a decision to suspend a Health Professional as a precautionary
measure for a period not exceeding three (3) months. The suspension may be
extended for the same period the completion of investigation into the violation
attributed to him, provided that the extension decision is reasoned.
c.
The
Medical Grievances Committee may grant a stay of enforcement of
the precautionary closure or suspension decision referred to in paragraphs (a)
and (b) of this Article, upon the request of the grievant in his statement of
grievance and where there are substantial grounds for such stay. The Medical Grievances Committee must determine such a request within
three (3) working days from the date on which the grievance is referred to it.
A violator must remedy the violation within the
time frame prescribed by the DHA, failing which he will be deemed to have committed
a new violation and the following provisions will apply:
1.
Where
the
violation requiring remedy falls under the prohibited acts set out in Schedule (4)
attached hereto, the Medical Practices Committee must impose one of the
administrative penalties specified in paragraph (a) of Article (19) of this
Resolution.
2.
Where
the
violation requiring remedy falls under the violations set out in Schedule (5)
attached hereto, the DHA must double the respective fine, in accordance with
the provisions of paragraph (f) of Article (19) of this Resolution.
3.
In
addition
to the provisions of sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article, the Director
General and the Medical Practices Committee may temporarily close a Healthcare
Facility or suspend the Licence of a Health Professional until the violation is
remedied, provided that the competent authorities are notified of the temporary
closure of the Healthcare Facility.
a.
The
Director General must, upon the recommendation of the concerned organisational
unit of the DHA or the Medical Practices Committee, refer a violating Health Professional
or the person in charge of a violating Healthcare Facility to the competent
judicial bodies if the committed violation constitutes a criminal offence.
b.
The
acquittal or finding of non-liability of a person referred to judicial bodies
in accordance with paragraph (a) of this Article will not preclude imposing the
administrative penalties and measures prescribed by this Resolution.
Any affected party may submit a written
grievance to the Director General against a decision, action, or measure taken
against him under this Resolution and the resolutions issued in pursuance
hereof, within thirty (30) days of being notified of the contested decision,
action, or measure. The grievance will be determined, within thirty (30) days from the date of
its submission, by the Medical Grievances
Committee. The
decision issued in respect of the grievance will be final.
a.
One
or more committees named the “Medical Grievances Committees” will be formed at
the DHA pursuant to a resolution of the Director
General. The Medical
Grievances Committee
will be comprised of a chairman, a vice chairman, and a number of specialised
and experienced members.
b.
The
resolution
forming the Medical
Grievances Committee
will determine its terms of reference, and the procedure for holding its
meetings and passing its resolutions.
c.
The
Medical Grievances Committee will be responsible for considering
and determining the grievances filed in respect of the decisions, actions, or measures taken in accordance with
the provisions of this Resolution and the resolutions issued in pursuance
hereof.
The fees and fines collected pursuant
to this Resolution and the resolutions issued in pursuance hereof will be paid
to the Public Treasury of the Government of Dubai.
a.
All
Healthcare
Facilities and Health Professionals operating in the Emirate by the effective
date of this Resolution must comply with its provisions within one (1) year of
that effective date. The Director General may, where necessary, extend this
grace period once for the same period.
b.
Where
the Licence of a Healthcare Facility or Health Professional expires during the
grace period referred to in paragraph (a) of this Article, the Licence may be
renewed without prejudice to the obligation to comply with the provisions of
this Resolution before the expiry of that period; otherwise, they will be
subject to liability.
The Director General will issue the
resolutions required for the implementation of this Resolution. These
resolutions will be published in the Official Gazette.
The Director may delegate any of his powers
under this Resolution and the resolutions issued in pursuance hereof to any of
the DHA employees, provided that this delegation is specific and in writing.
a.
This
Resolution
supersedes the above-mentioned Executive Council Resolution No. (32) of 2012.
b.
Any
provision
in any other resolution is hereby repealed to the extent that it contradicts
the provisions of this Resolution.
c.
The
resolutions,
bylaws, and instructions issued in implementation of the above-mentioned
Executive Council Resolution No. (32) of 2012 will continue in force to the
extent that they do not contradict this Resolution, until new superseding
resolutions, bylaws, and instructions are issued.
This Resolution will be published in
the Official Gazette and will come into force sixty (60) days after the date of
its publication.
Hamdan bin
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Crown Prince of Dubai
Chairman of the Executive Council
Issued in Dubai on 28 August 2024
Corresponding
to 23 Safar 1446 A.H.
|
Schedule
(1) Fees for Issuing Healthcare
Facilities with Licences ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ |
||||||||||
|
Fee (in
dirhams) |
Type of
Healthcare Facility |
Category
of Healthcare Facility |
SN |
|||||||
|
Change or
Transfer of Ownership, or Assignment of Licences |
Issuance
or Renewal of Licences |
On-site
Re-inspection |
On-site
Inspection |
Modification
of Building Plans |
Application
for Initial Approval |
|||||
|
Three (3)
years |
Two (2)
Years |
One (1)
Year |
||||||||
|
2,000.00 |
50,000.00 |
35,000.00 |
20,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
4,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
With a bed capacity of less than fifty (50) |
Hospitals |
1 |
|
3,000.00 |
75,000.00 |
52,500.00 |
30,000.00 |
With a bed capacity of fifty (50) to one hundred
(100) |
2 |
|||||
|
4,000.00 |
100,000.00 |
70,000.00 |
40,000.00 |
With a bed capacity of more than one hundred (100) |
3 |
|||||
|
2,000.00 |
50,000.00 |
35,000.00 |
20,000.00 |
1,500.00 |
3,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
Fertility Centre |
Out-patient Healthcare Facilities |
4 |
|
One-day Surgery Centre |
5 |
|||||||||
|
Sleeping Disorders Diagnosis and Treatment Centre |
6 |
|||||||||
|
Oncology Treatment Centre |
7 |
|||||||||
|
Dialysis Centre |
8 |
|||||||||
|
Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Centre |
9 |
|||||||||
|
500.00 |
12,500.00 |
8,750.00 |
5,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
General Dental Clinic |
10 |
|
|
Psychiatric Treatment Centre |
11 |
|||||||||
|
General Medicine Clinic |
12 |
|||||||||
|
Home Healthcare Services Centre |
13 |
|||||||||
|
School or Educational Institution
Clinic |
14 |
|||||||||
|
600.00 |
15,000.00 |
10,500.00 |
6,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Specialist Clinic |
15 |
|
|
400.00 |
10,000.00 |
7,000.00 |
4,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
Pharmacy Clinic |
16 |
|||
|
1,500.00 |
37,500.00 |
26,250.00 |
15,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
Multispeciality Medical Centre |
17 |
|||
|
1,200.00 |
30,000.00 |
21,000.00 |
12,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
Telehealth Services Centre |
18 |
|||
|
600.00 |
15,000.00 |
10,500.00 |
6,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
Thalassemia Centre |
19 |
|||
|
1,200.00 |
30,000.00 |
21,000.00 |
12,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
Medical Fitness Centre |
20 |
|||
|
250.00 |
6,250.00 |
4,375.00 |
2,500.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Nursery Clinic |
21 |
|||
|
600.00 |
15,000.00 |
10,500.00 |
6,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Medical Laboratory |
Medical Diagnostic Centres |
22 |
|
Radiology Centre |
23 |
|||||||||
|
1,200.00 |
30,000.00 |
21,000.00 |
12,000.00 |
Two-Speciality Diagnostic Centre |
24 |
|||||
|
1,200.00 |
30,000.00 |
21,000.00 |
12,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Blood Bank [Services Centre] |
Specialised Units |
25 |
|
Umbilical Cord Blood and Stem Cell
Bank |
26 |
|||||||||
|
1,800.00 |
45,000.00 |
31,500.00 |
18,000.00 |
Mobile Healthcare Unit |
27 |
|||||
|
Health Transport Services Centre |
28 |
|||||||||
|
250.00 |
6,250.00 |
4,375.00 |
2,500.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
500.00 |
First-aid Unit |
29 |
|
|
500.00 |
12,500.00 |
8,750.00 |
5,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Alternative Medicine Centre (one speciality) |
Traditional Medicine Centres |
30 |
|
1,000.00 |
25,500.00 |
17,500.00 |
10,000.00 |
Alternative Medicine Centre (two
(2) or more specialities) |
31 |
|||||
|
500.00 |
12,500.00 |
8,750.00 |
5,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Physiotherapy Centre |
Allied Healthcare Services Centres |
32 |
|
Occupational Therapy Centre |
33 |
|||||||||
|
Speech and Language Therapy Centre |
34 |
|||||||||
|
Audiology and Speech Therapy
Centre |
35 |
|||||||||
|
Prosthetics Centre |
36 |
|||||||||
|
Dental Laboratory |
37 |
|||||||||
|
Optical Centre |
38 |
|||||||||
|
Psychology Centre |
39 |
|||||||||
|
Clinical Nutrition and Weight Management
Centre |
40 |
|||||||||
|
Podiatry Centre |
41 |
|||||||||
|
Allied Health Services Centre (one
speciality) |
42 |
|||||||||
|
1,000.00 |
25,000.00 |
17,500.00 |
10,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Allied Health Services Centre (two
or more specialities) |
43 |
|
|
750.00 |
18,750.00 |
13,125.00 |
7,500.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Pharmacy |
Pharmacies |
44 |
|
Pharmaceutical Warehouse |
45 |
|||||||||
|
750.00 |
18,750.00 |
13,125.00 |
7,500.00 |
1,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
500.00 |
1,000.00 |
Nursing Home |
Long-Term Healthcare Facilities |
46 |
|
Palliative Care Facility |
47 |
|||||||||
|
Therapeutic and Assisted Living Facility |
48 |
|||||||||
|
Addiction Treatment and
Rehabilitation Centre |
49 |
|||||||||
Schedule
(2)
Fees
for Health Professionals
ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
|
SN |
Description |
Fee (in dirhams) |
||
|
Physicians and Dentists |
Nurses and Midwives |
Other Healthcare Professionals |
||
|
1 |
Review of Application |
200.00 |
200.00 |
200.00 |
|
2 |
Oral Assessment |
500.00 |
250.00 |
250.00 |
|
3 |
Urgent Oral Assessment |
2,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
2,000.00 |
|
4 |
Issuing or renewing a Licence (for one (1) year) |
3,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
|
5 |
Issuing or renewing a Licence (for two (2) years) |
5,000.00 |
1,500.00 |
1,500.00 |
|
6 |
Issuing or renewing a Licence (for three (3) years) |
7,500.00 |
2,500.00 |
2,500.00 |
|
7 |
Transferring Licence from one Healthcare Facility to
another within the Emirate |
1,000.00 |
500.00 |
500.00 |
|
8 |
Upgrading a Licence from part-time to full-time |
200.00 |
200.00 |
200.00 |
|
9 |
Issuing a part-time Licence |
3,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
|
10 |
Issuing a temporary Licence (valid for a maximum
period of six (6) months) |
3,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
1,000.00 |
|
11 |
Adding or updating a professional designation |
200.00 |
200.00 |
200.00 |
|
12 |
Issuing a certificate of good professional standing |
500.00 |
500.00 |
500.00 |
|
13 |
Issuing a replacement for a lost or damaged
professional practice card, or variation of card information |
50.00 |
50.00 |
50.00 |
Schedule
(3)
Fees
for Certain Services Provided to Healthcare Facilities
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
|
SN |
Description |
Fee (in dirhams) |
|
1 |
Changing the medical director |
1,000.00 |
|
2 |
Changing the name of a Healthcare Facility |
1,000.00 |
|
3 |
Adding or changing a local service agent |
1,000.00 |
|
4 |
Reviewing a request for adding a speciality or Health
Activity to a Healthcare Facility |
1,000.00 |
|
5 |
Changing the location of a Healthcare Facility |
1,000.00 |
|
6 |
Adding a new mobile unit to a Healthcare Facility |
2,000.00 per year |
|
7 |
Adding telehealth services |
2,000.00 per year |
|
8 |
Adding home Healthcare services |
2,000.00 per year |
|
9 |
Issuing a sick leave certificate |
50.00 |
Schedule
(4)
Prohibited
Acts
ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
|
SN |
Description |
|
1 |
Making any modification to the Licence/Permit, by
way of addition or deletion, without the approval of the DHA |
|
2 |
Acting beyond the limits of the Professional’s scope
of practice or the Licence issued to him, except in the cases permitted by
law |
|
3 |
Performance, by a Professional, of a medical or
surgical procedure for which the available resources are inadequate, except
in emergency situations |
|
4 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to obtain
international accreditation within the time frame prescribed by the DHA |
|
5 |
Failure to comply with the standards and
requirements for Persons with Disabilities |
|
6 |
Failure to comply with the adopted technical and health
requirements related to establishing, operating, or managing a Healthcare
Facility |
|
7 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to comply with the clinical
directives and bylaws adopted by the DHA |
|
8 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to comply with the
legislation, policies, rules, and circulars related to the transportation,
storage, dispensing, re-dispensing, disposal, destruction of narcotic,
controlled, or semi-controlled drugs, and to the management of the records
relating to the same. |
|
9 |
Failure by optical shops to comply with the regulations
and instructions for issuing eye test certificates |
|
10 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to provide medical
equipment and technical devices required for the provision of Healthcare
services for patients |
|
11 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to conduct periodic
and ongoing maintenance for medical equipment and technical devices |
|
12 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to provide
sterilisation equipment or alternative disposable medical supplies |
|
13 |
Using devices or equipment for a speciality that is
not authorised by the DHA |
|
14 |
Failure to follow the adopted practices and
protocols for preventing infection and cross-infection |
|
15 |
Failure to comply with the guidelines and regulations
approved by the DHA for the sterilisation of medical supplies and equipment
used by Healthcare Facilities |
|
16 |
Committing a malpractice by a Health Professional |
|
17 |
Disclosure of a patient’s secrets which the Health
Professional becomes aware of by reason of or in the course of practising the
Health Profession, whether the patient has confided the secrets to the Health
Professional, entrusted them to the Health Professional, or the Health Professional
has come to know them independently |
|
18 |
Bringing a fellow Health Professional into disrepute
or undermining his professional or moral standing |
|
19 |
Failure to adhere to the recognised code of ethics
of the Health Profession |
|
20 |
Failure to notify the DHA of Communicable Diseases
as required by the applicable legislation and regulations in force |
|
21 |
Engaging in activities that conflict with the rules
and principles governing the practice of the Health Profession |
|
22 |
Failure to comply with the legislation and standards
governing Information and Communications Technology in Health-related Fields |
|
23 |
Delay in providing treatment without a justification
or reason acceptable to the DHA |
|
24 |
Providing false or contradictory information about a
treatment plan |
|
25 |
Failure to explain the procedures, complications, or
risks related to treatment |
|
26 |
Determining a treatment by a Health Professional
without conducting clinical examination of the patient |
|
27 |
Clinical examination of patients from opposite
gender without the presence of a third party or without prior consent of the
patient, except in emergency situations |
|
28 |
Treatment of a patient without prior consent, except
in emergency cases where medical intervention is required and obtaining the
consent of the patient or his relative is difficult for any reason |
|
29 |
Abstaining from or discontinuing emergency treatment
of a patient |
|
30 |
Discharging a patient from the Healthcare Facility
where he is treated, except in cases, and in accordance with the rules,
prescribed by the legislation in force |
|
31 |
Referring a patient from the Healthcare Facility
where he is treated to another Healthcare Facility in violation of the
instructions issued by the DHA and the applicable legislation in force |
|
32 |
Running unnecessary medical tests for the patient |
|
33 |
Use of unauthorised or illegal methods or equipment
in the treatment of patients |
|
34 |
Changing or deleting the data or information entered
into the patient’s medical file in violation of the relevant instructions
adopted by the DHA |
|
35 |
Losing the medical file of a patient or any part
thereof |
|
36 |
Failure to comply with the conditions and rules
adopted by the DHA in respect of managing medical files |
|
37 |
Providing by a Healthcare Facility or Health Professional
inaccurate data to the DHA |
|
38 |
Failure to cooperate with the DHA or other
Government Entities during emergencies, crises, and disasters |
|
39 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility or Health Professional
to cooperate with the DHA in addressing the administrative complaints
referred thereto by the DHA |
|
40 |
Failure to implement the recommendations stated in
the Medical Practices Committee’s reports |
|
41 |
Failure to report to the DHA any serious incidents
or to comply with the relevant instructions issued by the DHA |
|
42 |
Failure to cooperate with DHA inspectors or
obstructing their work without a reason acceptable to the DHA |
|
43 |
Publishing a Health Promotion in any manner without
first obtaining the relevant authorisation of the DHA |
|
44 |
Posting content, images, or advertisements in a
Healthcare Facility or on social media in a manner that conflicts with public
order and morality, customs and traditions of the local community, or ethics
of the Health Profession |
|
45 |
Failure to comply with the rules, requirements, and
procedures adopted by the DHA for Health Promotion |
|
46 |
Writing or dispensing a Prescription in a manner
that does not conform to the recognised medical and professional standards |
|
47 |
Abusing narcotic, controlled, or semi-controlled medical
prescriptions |
|
48 |
Using drugs and medications that are not registered
in the UAE without an authorisation |
|
49 |
Trading in drugs and medications registered with the
UAE by an unauthorised Health Professional or Healthcare Facility |
|
50 |
Failure to match the dispensed quantity of narcotic,
controlled, or semi-controlled drugs with the relevant records |
|
51 |
Using, selling, distributing, or storing expired
drugs, medical supplies, or cosmetic products |
|
52 |
Failure to comply with legislation and resolutions
governing the dispensing and re-dispensing of narcotic, controlled, or
semi-controlled drug prescriptions |
|
53 |
Selling or illegally importing into the UAE any
fraudulent or counterfeit Medical Products, Raw Materials, chemicals, healthy
foods, or medical-grade cosmetic products |
|
54 |
Placing or storing medications and pharmaceutical
preparations at a temperature and humidity level that does not comply with
approved storage conditions |
|
55 |
Selling medications or samples to patients,
promoting or advertising certain medications, or directing the patient to
purchase medications from a specific pharmacy, except as authorised |
|
56 |
Failure to comply with the standards and policies
prescribed by the DHA in respect of approved medications and pharmaceutical
preparations |
|
57 |
Failure to provide medications, medical supplies, or
medical devices and equipment in emergency situations in accordance with the
instructions issued in this respect |
|
58 |
Failure to report an unexpected Side Effect, Serious
Side Effect, Unexpected Adverse Reaction, or serious Adverse Event related to
a Medical Product within the prescribed time frame |
|
59 |
Issuing sick leave beyond the scope of a Health Professional’s
Licence |
|
60 |
Issuing sick leave by a person not authorised to do
so |
|
61 |
Issuing false or medically unjustifiable sick leave |
|
62 |
Issuing sick leave for a duration exceeding the
period authorised for the Health Professional |
Schedule
(5)
Violations
and Fines
ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
|
SN |
Violation |
Fine (in dirhams) |
|
1 |
Practising the Health Profession without a Licence by
a person who does not meet the requirements for obtaining the Licence |
30,000.00 |
|
2 |
Practising the Health Profession without a Licence by
a person who meets the requirements for obtaining the Licence |
10,000.00 |
|
3 |
Practising the Health Profession at an unlicensed
facility, unless otherwise permitted by law |
20,000.00 |
|
4 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to provide the
professional staff required for the provision of Healthcare services |
2,000.00 |
|
5 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to display the
patient rights and duties chart in a conspicuous place for easy reference |
1,000.00 |
|
6 |
Failure to notify the DHA of any variation or change
to the data or information related to a Healthcare Facility, or to the data,
information, or address of a Health Professional, within two (2) months from
the date of this variation or change |
1,000.00 |
|
7 |
Relocation of a Healthcare Facility without first
obtaining the approval of the DHA |
2,000.00 |
|
8 |
Variation or change of the plan or design of a
Healthcare Facility without first obtaining the approval of the DHA |
10,000.00 |
|
9 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to update its data
and information on the electronic systems of the DHA, or ingesting these
systems with false data and information |
2,000.00 |
|
10 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to update the
records of its Health Professionals on the registers maintained by the DHA |
2,000.00 |
|
11 |
Use of the Healthcare Facility premises for
unauthorised purposes |
20,000.00 |
|
12 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to develop its
work-related bylaws |
1,000.00 |
|
13 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to comply with the
instructions and resolutions issued by the DHA |
4,000.00 |
|
14 |
Failure by a Health Professional to comply with the
instructions and resolutions issued by DHA |
2,000.00 |
|
15 |
Failure to display the Healthcare Facility Licence
in a conspicuous place for easy reference by patients |
1,000.00 |
|
16 |
Failure to issue sick leave electronically |
5,000.00 |
|
17 |
Failure to comply with the relevant instructions of
the DHA when issuing medical reports |
2,000.00 |
|
18 |
Failure to report to the DHA any malpractice or
incident related to practising the Health Profession occurring within the
Healthcare Facility, or compromising the health of patients or the Public
Health |
2,000.00 |
|
19 |
Failure to comply with the requirements, rules, and
procedures adopted by the DHA in respect of treatment consent, or failure to
provide treatment consent forms |
5,000.00 |
|
20 |
Display of false data or information on commercial
signage, website, or documents of a Healthcare Facility or Health Professional
which is incompatible with the Licence issued by the DHA |
5,000.00 |
|
21 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to contract a
specialised pest control company |
2,000.00 |
|
22 |
Publicising and promoting any medication, Medical
Product, or Medical Equipment in the Healthcare Facility without obtaining
the approval of the DHA |
2,000.00 |
|
23 |
Selling medications or Medical Products at prices
other than those prescribed by the Ministry of Health and Prevention |
2,000.00 |
|
24 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to provide a
patient with a copy of his medical file upon request |
4,000.00 |
|
25 |
Failure by a Health Professional to provide a
patient with a detailed report on his medical condition upon request |
2,000.00 |
|
26 |
Violating, or failing to comply with, the
legislation, bylaws, or policies adopted by the DHA |
5,000.00 |
|
27 |
Failure to obtain approval from the DHA to organise
a medical camp, an awareness campaign, or an educational programme for the
public; or failure to comply with the instructions and guidelines issued for
such programmes or campaigns |
10,000.00 |
|
28 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to register or
fulfil the requirements for providing radiology services, as prescribed by
the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation |
20,000.00 |
|
29 |
Failure by a Health Professional or Healthcare
Facility to produce the Licence or other related documents when requested by
the DHA's inspectors |
5,000.00 |
|
30 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility or Health Professional
to provide the DHA with the required data, information, and documents within
the specified time frame |
2,000.00 |
|
31 |
Refusing to accept the DHA notices sent to a Health Professional
or Healthcare Facility |
2,000.00 |
|
32 |
Failure to notify the DHA of the mortality reports
or to provide it with the medical files of the deceased within the time frame
prescribed by the DHA |
5,000.00 |
|
33 |
Failure to provide the DHA with the required data,
information, documents, or key performance indicators within the time frame
prescribed by the DHA |
5,000.00 |
|
34 |
Establishing or operating a Healthcare Facility
without first obtaining the Licence |
20,000.00 |
|
35 |
Conducting the Health Activity by a Healthcare
Facility after expiry of the Licence |
20,000.00 |
|
36 |
Provision by a Healthcare Facility of unauthorised
Healthcare services, or conducting the Health Activity in other than the
authorised speciality |
5,000.00 |
|
37 |
Delay by a Healthcare Facility in renewing its Licence
for six (6) months without prior permission or a valid reason acceptable to
the DHA |
20% of the Licence fees for each
month of delay a part of a month will be rounded
up to a full month |
|
38 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to notify the DHA
of any temporary partial or complete closure of the Healthcare Facility for
any reason, in accordance with the procedures adopted by the DHA in this
respect |
5,000.00 |
|
39 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to notify the DHA
of the discontinuation of any its Healthcare services, within two (2) months
of the discontinuation of service |
5,000.00 |
|
40 |
Failure by a Health Professional to display the Licence
issued to him by the DHA in a conspicuous place for easy reference during the
practice of his Health Profession |
1,000.00 |
|
41 |
Practising the Profession by a Professional before
completing the procedures for obtaining the Licence |
10,000 |
|
42 |
Engaging or recruitment by a Healthcare Facility of
an individual who meets the requirements for obtaining the Licence from the
DHA but has not yet completed the procedures for its issuance |
20,000 |
|
43 |
Engaging or recruitment by a Healthcare Facility of
a Health Professional who is authorised to practise at another Healthcare
Facility under different ownership |
5,000.00 |
|
44 |
Continuation by a Health Professional to practise
the Health Profession after a decision to suspend his Licence is issued |
30,000 |
|
45 |
Continuation by a Health Professional to practise
the Profession after the expiry of his Licence |
5,000.00 |
|
46 |
Delay by a Health Professional in renewing the Licence
for more than six (6) months without prior approval or a valid reason
acceptable to the DHA |
-
20% of the
Licence fees for each month of delay -
a part of
a month will be rounded up to a full month |
|
47 |
Engaging, by a Healthcare Facility, of a Health Professional
with an expired Licence |
10,000.00 |
|
48 |
Engaging, by a Healthcare Facility, of a person not
authorised to practise the Health Profession |
30,000.00 |
|
49 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility or Health
Professional to comply with the prices approved by the DHA |
1,000.00 |
|
50 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to assign or
appoint a replacement Medical Director in the event the position remains
vacant longer than the period specified by the DHA |
5,000.00 |
|
51 |
Failure to meet the requirements and employ the
methods approved for the management and disposal of medical waste |
5,000.00 |
|
52 |
Advertising and promoting the services provided by a
Healthcare Facility without first obtaining the approval of the DHA |
2,000.00 |
|
53 |
Admitting patients for more than twenty-four (24)
hours by a Healthcare Facility not authorised for in-patient care |
10,000.00 |
|
54 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to display in a conspicuous
place the charges of the Healthcare services it provides |
5,000.00 |
|
55 |
Failure by a school clinic to comply with the conditions
and requirements adopted by the DHA |
5,000.00 |
|
56 |
Failure by a Healthcare Facility to comply with the
principles and standards of vaccination adopted by the DHA |
5,000.00 |
|
57 |
Charging fees for the free vaccines provided by the
DHA |
5,000.00 |
|
58 |
Dispensing a Prescription issued by a Health Professional
working outside of the UAE |
5,000.00 |
|
59 |
Selling medications, Medical Products, or Medical
Equipment at an unauthorised Healthcare Facility |
10,000.00 |
|
60 |
Failure by a Health Professional or Healthcare
Facility to comply with the precautionary measures and procedures required to
prevent the transmission and spread of Communicable Diseases |
50,000.00 |
|
61 |
Practising by a Health Professional of the Health Profession
at a Healthcare Facility other than the one in which he is authorised to work |
5,000.00 |
©2025 The Supreme Legislation Committee in the
Emirate of Dubai
[1]Every effort has been made to produce an
accurate and complete English version of this legislation. However, for the
purpose of its interpretation and application, reference must be made to the
original Arabic text. In case of conflict, the Arabic text will prevail.