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Private hospital in Abu Dhabi temporarily shut

Closure ordered by DoH for failing to meet certain health and safety standards

Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Department of Health (DoH) has temporarily closed a major private hospital in the capital for failing to meet certain health and safety standards.

According to a DoH statement issued to the Arabic press, the hospital has been closed based on an audit conducted on April 25 and will remain shut for at least a month.

Following the closure order, inpatients at the 200-bed multispeciality hospital were transferred to other health care facilities based on the treatment required. The transfers were carried out under the supervision of the DoH’s medical operations department, which worked around the clock to ensure the convenience and safety of patients.

The healthcare sector regulator stressed that achieving excellence in health care, while ensuring patient safety, is one of its most important objectives, and that it will not make any compromises with regard to these standards. Any decision to close down a health care facility is therefore a precautionary measure aimed at protecting patients and making the highest standards of care available to them.

The closure was undertaken under Paragraph 2, Chapter 21 of Federal Law No 4 of 2015 regarding healthcare facilities.

The DoH added that it will continue to monitor the status of the hospital and assess its quality and performance.

The managing director of the hospital told Gulf News yesterday that the hospital had been carrying out “certain structural changes that had to be communicated to the authorities”.

“We should be ready to open very soon, even before a month has passed, especially as many of the rectifications pointed out have already been completed. While the closure was painful for us, we believe in the DoH’s vision of improving health care. As a team, we work to ensure that patient care is provided at the highest standards,” he said.

With regard to inpatients, the managing director added that most had been discharged.

“A few were transferred to neighbouring healthcare facilities on May 2 night, and all care was taken to make the transition smooth,” he said.

He did not, however, elaborate on how many patients had been transferred out or what structural changes are being undertaken at the hospital.