How to open a clinic in Dubai

The Dubai Health Authority, in two stages set by its Manual for Licensing Health Facility. A new facility licence is issued inactive for one year, and the clinic may not treat patients or advertise until DHA activates it.¹

• Apply through Sheryan or the Invest in Dubai platform, the only routes DHA accepts, with the trade licence or expected trade name, a facility proposal, the location with its Makani number and Ejari, and a layout by a DHA prequalified design consultant.¹
• Receive the inactive licence. Sheryan issues approved requests in an average of five working days, and the requirements must be met within the year or the process is cancelled.²¹
• Activate it with a valid trade licence, an appointed medical director, an electronic record that meets the NABIDH Minimum Data Set and connectivity requirements, and a passed DHA inspection.¹
• Choose the term. An activated licence runs for one, two or three years.¹
• In Dubai Healthcare City, healthcare activity also needs DHA's licences and permits since Law No. 16 of 2024, beside the City authority's own approvals.³
• For a longevity clinic, Law No. 17 of 2026 created the Dubai Longevity Authority, whose permit longevity activity now needs.⁴

• The DHA hub
• How to get a DHA facility licence for a new clinic
• What DHA checks at the final inspection
• NABIDH for clinics
• Licensing in Dubai Healthcare City

The premises must match the layout DHA approved, drawn by a prequalified consultant to DHA's Health Facility Guidelines, and the inspector expects a set of documents on the day.¹

• Keep the approved engineering layout on site, with room and bed counts as approved.¹
• Have the civil defence certificate, the waste management contract and a list of all medical equipment ready for the inspector.¹
• Register with FANR before installing radiology equipment, and request DHA's radiation safety inspection once it is in.¹
• Keep the approval email for tested NABIDH connectivity with the inspection documents.¹
• Host health data in the UAE. Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 bars storing or processing it outside the country unless a health authority resolution allows it.⁵

• What DHA checks at the final inspection
• AI scribes and UAE data residency
• Security at wai

Federal law bars practising medicine in the UAE without civil liability insurance against medical errors from a licensed UAE insurer, and makes the facility owner insure its practitioners and pay the full premium.⁶⁷

• Insure every practitioner against civil liability for medical errors, and against the risks of the profession, at the owner's cost.⁶
• Maintain malpractice insurance for every licensed professional, a standing duty of a DHA licensed facility.¹
• Have a copy of the facility's third party insurance contract ready at the activation inspection.¹
• In a group, cover professionals who rotate between branches within the group facility's malpractice insurance.¹
• A facility hosting a visiting physician is liable to compensate a patient harmed by that physician's error, with the right to recover from them.⁶

• What is on a DHA inspection checklist

Each professional is licensed by DHA under the facility. Professional licences can be applied for during the inactive year and activate automatically when the facility licence does.¹

• Appoint the medical director early, because activation needs one in post.¹
• Apply for each professional licence during the inactive year, so the team is ready on activation day.¹
• Keep enough licensed professionals to deliver every service you list. Without licensed staff, DHA temporarily closes the facility, for up to six months.¹
• Never employ a professional whose DHA licence is suspended, revoked or blacklisted.¹
• Keep every clinician within their licence and privileges, which DHA inspects.⁸

• The DHA hub

Consent, a NABIDH access clause and a record that meets the NABIDH standards, all on the day the licence is activated.⁹¹⁰

• Write an informed consent form for each procedure, in Arabic and English, and keep the completed form in the patient's record.⁹
• Add the NABIDH access consent clause to your general consent form. DHA does not need consent to upload to NABIDH.¹⁰
• Keep health data for at least 25 years from the patient's last procedure.⁵
• Hold advertising until the licence is active, since an inactive facility may not promote any health service.¹
• If AI is part of care, read DHA's policy on AI in healthcare before the first patient.¹¹

• Clinic software in Dubai and NABIDH
• Using AI in a Dubai clinic under DHA policy
• An AI receptionist in Arabic and English

DHA expects a self inspection with its own checklists every three months, so the first one falls inside the first quarter, and it inspects each facility as often as its risk rating sets.⁸

• Run the first quarterly self inspection with DHA's checklists, sign it and keep it for the inspector.⁸
• Keep patient files complete, signed and timed, because DHA can collect any file.⁸
• Read every inspection report in Sheryan. A violation can be appealed once, within 30 days.⁸
• Know the stakes. Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2024 sets facility fines of AED 5,000 to 200,000.¹²
• Diary the renewal, which can start three months before expiry, with fines cleared first. A licence unrenewed for six months is treated as cancelled.¹

• The DHA self inspection every three months
• Responding to a DHA violation
• Renewing a DHA facility licence