A new online medical fitness and occupational screening smart system that reduces the application processing time from two hours to just 30 seconds has been launched by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA).

The 'Salem' system, which was launched on Wednesday, has been integrated with all medical fitness centres in Dubai and will reduce customers' waiting time, minimise human intervention to almost zero and make blood test and x-ray results available electronically.

Initially, however, only companies can register with the system and make the procedure easy for their employees. Currently, 3,000 companies are registered with DHA and are utilising this service.

Individual applicants still have two options: either directly visit the DHA's 16 medical fitness centres where their applications will be processed using the Salem system or go to the 65 accredited services centres. The move is of significant importance given the vast number of people who require medical fitness services.

Maisa Al Bustani, director of medical fitness services department at the DHA, added that Salem is integrated with the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs Dubai (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 the authority has also begun the process of streamlining medical fitness services to enhance the customer's journey and make service centres a one-stop-shop for them.

Al Bustani said with the new system, customers do not need any papers; the data will be retrieved from GDRFA. "All they have to do in order to obtain their medical fitness test is visit the service centre and update their email and contact number," she said.

"Companies with over 50 employees do not need to go through service centres as we provide them with unique user names and passwords so that they can directly fill the applications online. Individuals and companies with less than 50 employees need to go through service centres to fill out their application for visa issuance and renewal," she added.

A list of accredited typing centres is available on DHA's website. Most of the medical fitness centres have a typing centre in the same premise and they are accredited.

"We will also make sure that all these centres are geographically distributed evenly across Dubai to ensure that residents are able to go to a centre that is in proximity to his/her home," she added.

Meanwhile, Humaid Al Qattami, director-general of DHA, inaugurated the Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) Medical Fitness Centre that has a capacity to accommodate 5,000 applicants a day. Major General Mohammed Ahmad Al Marri, director-general of GDRFA-D, also attended the event.

Amani Al Jasmi, IT director at DHA, revealed that the authority is also going to launch an app to further ease the medical fitness test procedures.

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.

Source: Khaleej Times