The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) launched the ‘Salem’ medical fitness and occupational screening system on Wednesday during the inauguration of the Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) Medical Fitness Center.

The new system, which has been integrated to all medical fitness centers in Dubai will reduce customer’s waiting time, minimize human intervention to almost zero and make blood test and x-ray results available electronically.

The move is of significant importance given the vast number of people who require medical fitness services. In 2015, total number of people who visited Dubai Health Authority run medical fitness centers were 2,051,802. Of these 843,085 were new applicants and the remaining were visa-renewals.

Medical fitness test is a mandatory requirement for all expats in the UAE. Medical Fitness screening is a prerequisite for a residency, employment or education visa.

The event was attended by His Excellency Humaid Al Qutami, Chairman of the Board and Director General of the DHA, Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Marri, Director General of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs Dubai (GDRFA-D) and a number of officials.

Commenting on the launch of Salem, Al Qutami said the new smart system is in line with the Dubai 2021 strategy and the Authority’s smart health initiatives that aims to provide customers with added convenience and quicker processing time.

Maisa Al Bustani, Director of Medical Fitness Services Department at the DHA added that Salem is integrated with the GDRFA-D.

“Once the applicant completes all the due screening procedures, the applicant will receive a SMS notification alert and we will send the results electronically via an email.

She added that all the Authority has also begun the process of streamlining medical fitness services to enhance the customer’s journey and make service centers a one-stop-shop for them. So far, 65 service centers (35 of which are Tasheel Centers) both located within medical fitness centers of DHA and external ones have been accredited and are authorized to provide services.

Al Bustani said with the new system, customers do not need any papers; the data will be retrieved from GDRFA.

“Companies with employees above 50 do not need to go through service centers as we provide them with unique usernames and passwords so that they can directly fill the applications online using the system. Individuals and companies with less than 50 employees need to go through service centers to fill out their application for visa issuance and renewal. They can log onto the DHA website to find a list of accredited typing centers. Most of the medical fitness centers have a service center in the same premise and they are accredited. This is to provide added convenience in one location to the customer. We have also accredited stand-alone service centers that met our criteria. All service centers are required to follow quality standards set by DHA to ensure customer happiness and professional service.”

Mrs Al Bustani said: “We will also make sure that all these centers are geographically distributed evenly across Dubai to ensure that residents are able to go to a center that is in proximity to his/her home.”

She also stated that the new system reduced the procedure time at service centers from 45 minutes and above to less than a minute.

Commenting on the launch of the new JLT medical fitness center, Al Bustani said the center has the capacity to meet the needs to 5,000 plus customers per day.

She added that medical fitness centers across Dubai have several medical fitness options available such as regular, VIP, 24 hour and 48 hour medical fitness service, which ensures the results are provided within the selected time-frame.

Meanwhile, the Director IT at DHA, Amani Al Jasmi revealed that the authority is also going to launch an app to further ease the medical fitness test procedures. She added that the authority adopted with the best electronic system to establish Salem.

The DHA also offers the Tawajod service, which is a fast-track service that is highly beneficial for corporate employees. DHA employees visit the office or home of the individual who has requested for this service and conduct the medical fitness tests required on the spot. For every request, a maximum of 70 employees are tested. This saves the time of the business community as their employees can get the test done in their offices itself.

Al Bustani added that this service is also beneficial for homemakers who do not wish to go to a medical fitness center to renew their visa. A request for this service can be made using the DHA’s website www.www.dha.gov.ae