BAHRAIN’S health regulator is working on updating its strategy for this year to prioritise medical investment in the country.
The National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) is focusing on making its regulations more accessible and transparent, as well as maintaining international standards to help attract investors and reassure patients.
Its chief executive Dr Mariam Al Jalahma told the GDN that she hopes by improving the quality of services and procedures the authority can increase the country’s global competitiveness that will place Bahrain on the map for medical tourism and international investment.
As part of the 2019 strategic priorities and areas of improvement, the NHRA wants to tackle IT optimisation, expansion of accreditation implementation, developing new guidelines, procedures and policies, automate professionals and facility licensing, and update existing regulations.
The authority also plans to hold more training programmes and international accreditation of NHRA standards.
The NHRA also announced two programmes to help improve investment in particular; one is to open an investors office where a dedicated team will guide investors on opportunities, how to apply and resolve any issues or delays in projects.
The second programme is an online platform on the NHRA’s new website, nhra.bh, where all the information for investors will be published, including steps to open a facility and a proposal template.
Also, all the regulations and technical engineering requirements will be available as part of the comprehensive guide for investors.
“These tremendous changes make the government sector more competitive with the private sector in providing services and running their own business, which is a great change that the world is moving towards,” said Dr Al Jalahma.
“I can say that Bahrain has a very sound ground for attracting investment in health because we have one body, which is the NHRA, that regulates the health sector, so the investor only has to go to that one body instead of several government bodies to establish their licences.
“Also, we have clear rules and regulations and they are published on the website to guide the investors on how they can open a facility or invest in any type of facility here.
“Also we implemented the national accreditation programme for the private sector where the quality of services is evaluated to ensure the people, who are using these services, whether they are in Bahrain or coming in from abroad, that there is a monitoring body insuring the quality of services.”
The GDN reported last Tuesday that Bahrain was striving to become a medical hub by promoting itself as a destination for patients from around the world, and has already started studying niche segments to attract health visitors to the country.
ghazi@gdn.com.bh
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