Category: Uncategorized

29/05/2015

Doubtless; the recent decision of the Cabinet to set up a national unified database for all medical registers for the sick – via e-linkage among public sector and private sector hospitals reporting to either the Ministry of Health or the Health Authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and the Emirates Identity Authority – will serve the government’s policy of strengthening relations among institutions. The e-linkage will be established by using the ID card in the provision of government services and adopting the unique ID number as the unified number for updating patients’ data.

The decision is in sync with the UAE’s efforts to establish a national health care system on par with the global standards as per the UAE Vision 2021. This is in order to strengthen the competitive edge of the country in health care and enhance its global ranking as per the performance indicators of health systems according to the World Health Organization. As of now, the UAE enjoys the 27^th ranking globally in the WHO assessment.

The decision came at the same time as the announcement of the government’s smart transition in regard to government services reaching 96.3% with 331 services provided to the public on a daily basis having been made ‘smart’. It is a significant step in the UAE’s efforts to keep pace with global changes by relying on technology and smart applications for purposes of improving the quality of life for the people.

The decision is expected to improve the medical services provided to the patients as it would make it easier for them to receive suitable treatment as it ensures easy access to their illness history right up to their family background.

Another important advantage of the decision is that it will create a national database of genetically transmitted diseases endemic to the country, making it easier for the concerned authorities in the country to conduct studies and research about them and to adopt policies as well as preventive and curative programs for the prevalent diseases in the local community, besides putting in place mechanisms and strategies suitable for enhancing the performance of medical institutions in general.

The new system will also reduce the cost of treatment individually and institutionally through reduction in average cost of medical tests and the utilization of the available data for purposes of medical research.

The enhancement of performance in the medical sector in the UAE is sure to improve the position of the country in the world map for medical tourism. This will also strengthen various other components of the whole process, such as government spending on the health sector, the infrastructure of the sector and medical projects with qualitative importance such as the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.  This is in addition to the several medical legislations that the country adopted and its effort to enhance the standards for medical practices, such as the launch of the initiatives ‘the UAE Board’ and the decision to approve mobile health care to provide medical services to those who are unable to visit the hospitals such as the elderly living in remote areas. This is aimed at executing the UAE strategy of guaranteeing the right of every individual in the UAE society to receive basic and comprehensive medical care to the best standards and of giving care to the special needs people.

These intensive efforts are integral to a comprehensive development perspective that the UAE has adopted in order to make the standard of living in the UAE society one of the best in the world in various walks of life.

26/05/2015

The most important prayer that emanates from your heart is for Allah to grant those who you love full health and a long life.

And the most important thing you can do to any human being is to extent him a helping hand when he faces health problems.

“The health of our citizens and those who live amidst us in our country is our priority,” said HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

As such, an integrated health system on par with global specifications will be set up, including a national health database register that will include all those who visit government and private hospitals, with each patient having a unique number to identify him in whichever hospital in the UAE he visits. This number will be his password using which his doctor will access his health file.

The ID number is the medical key which will enable all doctors to access the files of the patients and understand the views of other doctors about their health conditions.

It is important for everyone to know how to utilize the technological development to serve him, facilitate work and save time.

The important thing about health files is to avoid errors committed by doctors and reduce the confusion felt by the patient. Whenever a patient is referred by a doctor to a hospital, he is forced to undergo the same tests that he had just got done days or weeks before.

The new development is bound to limit wastage of time and money for the patients, as well as the pain of carrying numerous files from one hospital to another as if he was starting a new treatment process from point zero. It is important for any hospital to accept the test results from another.

The country now wants to link the medical files to the development it is witnessing all around, and to offer a helping hand and a sense of happiness and comfort. Its eyes are fixed also on the world outside to extend medical and humanitarian help for those who need it. Today, it is carrying to the UAE the injured and affected families from Yemen and other regions suffering from devastation and plunder at the hands of the Houthis in order to provide them treatment in the hospitals here.

What the UAE is now doing for Yemen is nothing new. It is the same country that entered Palestine, particularly the besieged Gaza. It is the same country that sets sail towards any country near or far whose people need help as a result of catastrophes or wars.

It is a country that strives to extend to others the advanced health care and services that its people and residents enjoy.

14/05/2015

I continue to suffer from many complexes and search for my identity all the time. Is it more appropriate for me to belong to the sea or the land? At times I visit the animal farms run by my friends in the Western Region and feel I am actually here. At other times, I go into the sea in Ajman with my friends and feel I belong there. Last Friday, my friend in the Coast Guard refused to go into the sea along with the group of friends under any circumstance. No amount of cajoling would make him budge an inch and made it clear his was the final decision. Whoever does not carry the ID card would not venture into the sea, he ruled. The Law is supreme!

You know that your ID card carries your beautiful picture and you use it for many things. I wish its use could be further expanded to include everything in life. I wish a day will come on which we do not carry our driver’s licenses, car ownership card, health card, library card from Sharjah Library, access card for parks, exchange card from Western Union and thousands of other cards we carry. Before I forget, let me add the ATM card as well……They are an organization that works. It is said they have a wonderful workforce that is beautiful, quick in service delivery and excellent in performance. They have air-conditioned buildings offering Wi-Fi service too!

The point is that many government departments do not let you enter nowadays without producing your ID card at the entrance. Frankly, I don’t know if it is legal but it happens. Naturally, it is great that your meeting inside a government department is fruitful. So you rush out, spread the news among your partners and later realize you had left your ID at the entrance! After five meetings daily throughout the week for a period of a whole month, you don’t remember in which department you left your ID. Returning to all of those departments and enquiring after your ID as if you are a child who lost its toy is a trifle embarrassing: is my identity here? Does the picture not resemble me? I swear it is me. I know my granddad’s name is weird! It had derived from a species of peregrines….feign ignorance about what you don’t know!

Keeping the ID then becomes the duty of an employee in that department, who over time begins to feel you are late to take it back. He tries to call you or look for your number but finally returns it to the Authority which delivers it back to you. Of course it is a favor from them. There is another type who leaves your ID in his shelf until it gathers rust and you discover you had lost it while you are at the border crossing in Khatm Al Mallaha. You will definitely be forced to return home. Good right?!

It will not please anyone to be in that situation, except for the fish ‘Hamour’ that escaped from the iron grip. (That is my name in the sea). It will be nice of the government entities and the Identity Authority to put in place some mechanism to return the ID cards to their owners. This is particularly so if they are planning to expand the use of the card.

May you be healthy. By the way, how much for card replacement?

16/04/2015

In the journey of life, you pass through many experiences and stations. They take us far towards the shores of many beginnings. That is the divine order of things in creation. We learn and unlearn, and then again relearn the same, as if age is a train that traverses different stations each with its own unique environment and traits that impact on us and leave its imprint on our personalities.

At an early age our theory of life is marked by a kind of innocence and simplicity for everything in us then remains pure and uncontaminated by life’s pollutants. The rules of interests and benefits have not begun to dominate us at that stage. Our friendships, our love, our hate – they are all based on our emotions and our sense of the love of others for us.

In the spring of life, changes begin. Rules and fundamentals differ. Calculations come into the picture. Weaving of relations is based on new references. Selection and estrangement begin on the basis of priority lists. Mutuality of interests, beginning from simple things, gradually becomes the basis on which we look at everything and deal with everything.

In the midst of all that, there are principles that are changeless and foundational things at the core of our convictions that are beyond disturbance. Among them are our father and mother, our fundamental base and reference, the roots about which if we play our calculations, we lose the flavor of our life.

In this context, there was a composition that impressed me, from among the many messages that we receive daily on our smart phones and for which we spend a lot of our time. The title of that composition was ‘I and My Father: The Story of My Life’. I believe each of us went through what it conveys. The composition that I mention here is as follows:

At the age of 4: My father is the best.

At 6: My father knows everything and he is matchless

At 10: My father is wonderful, but he is obstinate

At 12: My father was kind when I was small

At 14: My father turned against me and is very sensitive

At 16: My father is incapable of keeping pace with the times and wants me to live my life according to the norms of his time

At 18: With each passing day, my father appears bitterer.

At 20: It is very difficult to tolerate my father. I wonder how my mother suffered him

At 25: My father opposes everything I want to do

At 30: It is impossible to agree with my father. Did my grandfather tire of my father when he was young?

At 40: My father brought me up in this life with a lot of disciple and I must do the same

At 50: It is difficult to control my adolescent sons. How much my father must have suffered in bringing us up?

At 55: My father had a long term vision and plan to achieve our interests, putting in all efforts. He was outstanding and kind.

At 60: My father is matchless. He was the best.

The conclusion was the same as the beginning. It took us 56 years to realize that ‘my father was the best.’

Let us do good to us parents before it is too late. Time does not return to compensate for what we lost. Goodness to parents is among the best things Allah directed us to do. He linked goodness to parents with our worship for Him, the One who accepts no partners.

Oh Lord, be merciful to them as they brought us up when we were small.

05/04/2015

Change is an inevitable mode of life and a reality that we must not only experience and accept but also seek to achieve in all social, economic, environmental or knowledge-related walks of life and try to harness for moving from the actual reality to a brighter and more distinctive future.

It was Allah Who created the universe and made change one of the laws that govern it and regulate the relationship among its components. It is emphasized in several parts of the Holy Quran that a steady life for a human being is totally out of question as understood from Allah’s verses: “And these days We alternate among the people” (Al Imran-140). This not only makes it easy for us to accept change but even encourages us to strive to create the conditions that will contribute to making it a success in the best way to our benefit as individuals and to the benefit of our organizations and society.

To make it a success in organizations, this being our concern in this stage, change must be dealt with according to scientific methodologies and managed by such methods that will render it a major contributor to achieving a quantum leap in the organization’s output, no matter if the organization is service-related, industrial, educational or otherwise. This is achieved by applying a holistic and practical approach ranging from the current reality to the reality wanted to be reached.

Managing change in an organization means planning for transition from  an actual situation to a targeted one with the aim of achieving specific objectives within a clear common vision combining the leadership and employees, through which changes to a certain system are made. These changes are implemented in such a manner that can be controlled through following specific framework and model in an orderly manner coupled with minimum harassment or inconvenience to the organization’s internal and external audience.

All the employees of the organization must be urged to take part in carrying out the change project by raising their awareness and familiarizing them with the situation intended to be moved to, developing their aptitudes and skills for dealing with the new situation in a skillful and simple manner and helping them accept the change and the associated regulations and instructions and understand the new roles and responsibilities of those affected by it.

Finally, I must say that today is yours but tomorrow is someone else’s and that one’s weakness is embodied in one’s inability to maintain the position one has already assumed. This requires each of us to accept the change and ignore all the effects that may lead one to reject it or fail to deal with it. Each one of us is also required to overcome the obstacles and difficulties by means of self-challenge and the ability to prove one’s worth in order to be distinguished and unique. Thus, change in itself is a cure for instability and lack of the spirit of creativity and innovation. Without the fluctuation of the living conditions, there is no way for an arrogant man to become humble or an ignorant man to learn.

Raya Hilal Al Darmaki / Registration Executive
Fujairah Customer Service Center

03/02/2015

The elections to the Federal National Council (FNC) are expected to be a greater success not just because we are now in the year 2015 and not in 2011, but due to multiple reasons, chief among them being the early decision to form a committee reflective of the eagerness of HH Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, for carrying on with the UAE’s experience in political participation. The diverse competencies and expertise that characterize the members of the National Committee for Elections are indicative of that eagerness – no excellence without an excellent work team. In its meeting last Thursday, the Committee reviewed many of the technicalities of the upcoming elections, particularly the services expected of the organizations and authorities, with the Emirates Identity Authority in their forefront. Our society expects the conduct of elections to be more efficient and error-free in light of the Emirates ID’s achievements such as the population register.

We want our society to contribute towards the success of the FNC elections in 2015 and even later, but how?

Success is not the responsibility of the Committee alone. We want the FNC itself to play a role – its chairman, members and the General Secretariat. We want more transparency from the members. We want the relationship between the FNC members and the citizens to be a permanent, lively, vibrant and lasting one, not a seasonal and narrow one focused on the elections.

We want our society to try electoral practices and train themselves on them wherever they are found, especially in public welfare societies and in public joint stock companies.

Elections are an educative experience as well as a knowledge and culture. We have to congratulate HH Dr. Sultan Bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah for his pioneering idea for setting up consultative councils for children and youth. The schools must begin to take up this role, so must the home – the role of educating and sensitizing.

It is necessary here to appreciate the joint initiative of the Ministry of State for Federal National Council and the UAE University to hold an annual forum for strengthening the values of political participation.

All of us, each according to his capacity, are keen on the continuous success of political participation as per the methods laid down by HH the President. These methods have proved their merit in the midst of  the storms brewing in the region.

01/02/2015

A friend of mine answered his own question about the benefits of the identity card, which I least expected. Even before I responded, he said the identity card was supposed to make carrying passport unnecessary. In fact; during the card’s promotion and propagation, it was told that it would make carrying a host of cards that our purses contain unnecessary – such as the health insurance card, even the ATM card. But the reality is quite the contrary; those were merely the expectations and orientations of the Smart Government and smart applications and initiatives of “paperless administrations.”

The unexpected question of the man was justified in view of what is happening before us, in terms of the similar experiences that customers went through. When you present your identity card to complete your transaction, the officer, who has not heard about faster procedures, creativity and innovation except from the media, asks you for a copy of the passport. The customer tries to convince the officer that an identity card is issued only for a UAE national who possesses a passport and a family book, and for an expatriate who possesses a passport and a legally valid residency from an empowered authority (in this case ‘the Residency and Immigration Affairs’).

The expatriate approaches the officer with a copy of his son’s residency, which clearly states that he is a student not allowed to work, but the officer demands a document for the same, reflecting the bureaucratic method of the likes of this officer who tend to accumulate papers and photocopies of transactions merely to satisfy his ego and to indulge in what he considers to be the power and privilege that come with his position! The likes of this officer with his behavior do not only pursue a bureaucratic path, but also expresses doubts about the validity and accuracy of information documented by another government authority.

Before we demand the Emirates Identity Authority to restore the esteem of its card and to show that the purpose behind it being mandatory is to make life easier for its carrier and to consolidate his data and protect them against loss, we called upon all concerned authorities directly dealing with the people to sensitize their staff that the times have changed. We are moving in the direction of a culture of smart government and smart applications that do not jell with an authority that asks for attested rent contract or its copy or electricity bill for vaccinating a child, as if the officer believes that the customer is a lover of darkness or has turned absent-mindedly towards the power of the sun and winds!

08/12/2014

Parliaments in all countries of the world are concerned with discussing crucial national issues and have a special prestige and respect. As its habit of adopting all that is good and beneficial, the wise leadership of the UAE is carrying on its approach to host the Third Organizational Learning Conference – though under the dome of the Federal National Council this time – on November 30 and December 1 concurrently with the 43^rd National Day and under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Emirates identity Authority.

The conference was attended by around 400 participants and saw 26 speakers from 13 countries talking about the best practices in organizational and government learning. The major speaker Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, played a major role in enriching the conference by presenting the journey of government learning in Malaysia and its growth-related experience of switching from an agricultural country with half the population living below the poverty line to a strong competitor worldwide in industry, tourism and high-quality services and exports.

The direct and practical recommendations of the conference included among others urging organizations to speed up their transition into educated ones by developing such organizational structures that would support and promote continuous organizational learning and creativity; preparing specialist trainers in the field of organizational and action learning; expanding the translation into Arabic so that the successful experiences and studies in this vital field would be conveyed; and developing initiatives and projects that would encourage reading and exploration.

They also included training the staff in formal and informal learning methods; keeping away from the traditional methods of training; encouraging the second-line and third-line leaders to develop their leadership and management aptitudes through granting them the powers that would enable them to apply their creative ideas at the organizational level; promoting applied research in the field of organizational learning and allocating the required budgets for this purpose; optimizing the organizational learning experiences of such Asian countries as Japan, Malaysia and South Korea; taking advantage of technology for applying learning methods; and following change management methods.

Thanks to all those who contributed to the success of this conference and let’s always remember that the strongest competitive advantage of individuals and organizations is their ability to learn effectively.

28/10/2014

“In the race for excellence there is no finish line” 

A saying by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Excellence in the Emirates Identity Authority has a special flavor; it is a combination of creative and innovative mental properties that deeply believe that excellence is a prerequisite that would make a difference in the local and global competitiveness and is the wing that an organization uses to fly high in endless blue oceans.

The leadership of the Emirates Identity Authority plays a key role not only in instilling the foundations of excellence but also causing its intellectual capital to be imbued with them and adapting its methodology of thinking to keep pace with a worldwide leading future vision that joins a race with the winds and keeps away from the traditional approach in practices and methods of thinking.

The intellectual capital in the Emirates Identity Authority constitutes the feasible integrative link that directly contributes to achieving future visions. This has led to the idea of investing in people and adopting exceptional universal concepts for upgrading human resources, not to mention the organizational and systematic knowledge management, which comes under organizational learning, where the Emirates Identity Authority has been a pioneer in adopting and activating the concept of organizational learning at the internal and community  levels.

Hence begins the journey of excellence.. and sails the Emirates Identity Authority’s fully loaded ship far away under a strategic leadership of clear vision, mission and destination, looking for all that is innovative and iconic. During its voyage, the ship berths in fertile green ports to invest some of its cargo and load all that fits it and offers feasible and supportive added values to it.

The Emirates Identity Authority’s ship is characterized by its positive energy, which brings contentment, happiness and enjoyment and creates an atmosphere that motivates free and creative thinking.

The Emirates Identity Authority has proved over the years that it is ready to be the first locally and globally and occupy top ranks in excellence and leadership races so as to create a new concept for non-traditional competition in blue oceans where modern, innovative and creative added values ​exist.

Finally, in the race for excellence, it is a matter of to be or not to be but in the Emirates Identity Authority it is a matter of to be and to be.

14/10/2014

I had a very beautiful feeling when I received a rose; I adore roses for their meanings of beauty and serenity and the fragrant nectar that oozes from them. What if you have received roses as a gift without a name to show the sender? Will this not make you curious to know the person who has remembered you, wished to surprise you and wanted to put a smile on your face? Yes, I had all these feelings when I received a rose, but who from?

It was from the Director General of the Emirates Identity Authority, where I work. What a great effect that initiative had on me. “Oh God, how embarrassed I am” were the first words I uttered in response.

It is true! I felt pretty embarrassed by his generosity when he sent to me and all my colleagues a fragrant rose and a card with the most tender words on it: “A heartfelt thank-you for your sincere efforts” marking the 10^th anniversary of the Emirates Identity Authority. How beautiful and tender this phrase was! But this was not all; he also sent an online message to all the Emirates ID’s staff in which he addressed them as the “Emirates ID’s loyal soldiers”. What a beautiful opening sentence!

I am not going to read his full message but the last sentence where I was most impressed when he said: “all the best for you, your colleagues and your customers.” Then he concluded his beautiful message by humbly signing as “Your brother Ali Al Khouri”. His words were resonant and his feeling was close to us.

How great is to be humble! How beautiful is to reward loyalty with benevolence! How wonderful is a “thank you” when it helps one to be energetic, positive and determined to pay back not only what one owes to the Emirates ID but to the homeland as well because he who does not thank people does not thank the Lord Who Has created people.

A heartfelt thank-you to you my manager; How honored I am to be a brick of this wonderful organization, which is led by you and which I always feel I am indebted to, no matter how hard I work to accomplish my tasks.

Frankly, this approach and these morals are not uncommon to a person who follows the example of our valued sheikhs led by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, may Allah protect him, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, may Allah protect him, and His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, who have always been generous with their people and have harnessed all potentials to implant the seeds of good values and morals for the benefit of their people.

I wish to Allah to make our country a source of pride for us, to bless our leaders and those in charge and help us serve this generous country. How proud I should be that I am an Emirati woman.