The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi signs agreement with United Kingdom’s Great Ormond Street Hospital

The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi (DoH), the regulator of the healthcare sector in the Emirate, announced its partnership with UK's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH). The agreement positions GOSH as Abu Dhabi's preferred provider for paediatric overseas care and opens doors for knowledge and expertise exchange while strengthening ties between both parties.

The agreement was signed at the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children by Hind Al Zaabi; Acting Director of IPC at DoH and Mat Shaw, CEO of GOSH, in attendance of Sultan Al Dhaheri; Director Internal Audit at DoH, alongside representatives from the UK Department of International Trade. The delegation then went on a tour of the Zayed Centre for Research which saw them visit current inpatients.

Commenting on the partnership, Al Zaabi said: "We are proud and honoured to be delivering our new IPC service, which provides a 24-hour service for our patients around the world. We are excited to develop this new relationship with Great Ormond Street Hospital for the benefit of Abu Dhabi's community."

"We are delighted to sign this agreement with the IPC Division of DoH. We look forward to our continued collaboration with Abu Dhabi to ensure that children with rare and complex conditions have access to the most cutting-edge treatments available." Mr Mat Shaw.

DoH has strived over the past two years to boost patients' treatment abroad, which has resulted in reducing the duration of issuing medical committee decisions from nine to five days, reducing the duration of processing and completing travel procedures from 16 days to five days, in addition to reducing the duration of obtaining a medical appointment from 11 days to 48 hours only. Further to that, DoH has also signed over 44 MoUs with various healthcare service providers around the world.

Every year GOSH treats over 1,500 patients from the Middle East; in the past nine years' GOSH has treated over 1,000 patients from the UAE. In 2014, H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF) made a transformative gift of £60 million to support the opening of the Zayed Centre for Research. In autumn 2019, the Zayed Centre for Research was opened for the benefit of children from around the world.