Non-UAE doctors employed full-time by the Ministry of Health (MoH) will no longer be allowed to work part-time in the private sector in Dubai beginning October 1, a senior Dubai Health Authority (DHA) official said on Monday.

“Only non-UAE doctors that are working full-time in the MoH and part-time in the private sector in Dubai will be subject to this rule,” Dr Ramadan Ebrahim, director of DHA Health Regulation Department, said.

Ibrahim said a three-month grace period was given to all licensed professionals, adding that violators would be subject to various penalties including a warning for the first violation, followed by a fine and withdrawal of licence in case of repetition.

Meanwhile, many doctors asked the MoH through Al Khaleej to reconsider the decision, particularly since the violations, if any, would be individual and that their part-time work would not affect their full-time work at the ministry’s hospitals. They added that many of them had financial obligations based on their income from work in private clinics.