UAE Health Ministry Moves Sick Leave Attestation From Patients to Hospitals

Under the previous process, the individual had to start the attestation application. Now the healthcare facility that issued the sick leave sends the request on behalf of the patient or the patient's companion, the ministry said on Wednesday. Requests that meet the required conditions move automatically to the approval stage, removing the need for a second application.

The change matters for employers and HR departments as much as for patients, since attested and approved sick leave is what workers need to submit to justify absences. It also shows how the UAE is using data links between government bodies to cut steps out of routine transactions, rather than simply moving paper forms online.

The update joins up two services that previously ran separately: the Attestation of Sick Leaves and Medical Reports Service, and the Approval of Sick Leaves and the Leave of the Patient's Companion Service. It applies to patients at MoHAP facilities in Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. The automatic transfer from attestation to approval covers employees of the Federal Government and of the local governments of those four emirates. Facilities can also now submit attestation requests for a companion's leave alongside the patient's own.

The ministry tied the move to the UAE Government's Zero Bureaucracy programme, which aims to strip out unnecessary procedures across federal services.

Abdullah Ahli, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for the Support Services Sector at MoHAP, said the ministry was focused on redesigning procedures, simplifying the customer journey and strengthening integration between entities. He said it wanted a service model in which transactions are completed through interconnected processes and data is exchanged effectively between government bodies, and that Zero Bureaucracy should be measured by real improvements in customer experience and efficiency.

The ministry did not say whether the automatic approval link will be extended to private sector employees, who make up most of the UAE workforce, or to facilities run by the separate health authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.