Abu Dhabi expands online booking service for residency visa medical screenings

Digital strategy aims to boost efficiency and cut waiting times to a matter of minutes

Residency visa medical screening appointments in Abu Dhabi can be booked on an app to help cut waiting times. PA

An Abu Dhabi digital strategy allowing appointments for medical screening for residency visa applications and renewals to be made online is helping to streamline services and cut waiting times.

The initiative was introduced in the capital in January by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) for individual applicants and has already been used to make more than 73,000 bookings.

The Seha Visa Screening App is now being extended to businesses, helping to ease the visa process for new and existing employees.

Medical screening is mandatory for residency in the country.

The examination involves a blood test and a chest X-ray to check for a number of diseases.

Previously, applicants had to visit one of the capital's disease prevention and screening centres on a walk-in basis.

Dr Omar Al Hashmi, chief clinical affairs officer at Ambulatory Healthcare Services, which operates the centres on behalf of Seha, said the booking system reduces waiting times from an average of 30 minutes to a maximum of 10.

As part of the updated scheme, users can log in using the UAE Pass and bookings are integrated with the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security to ensure automatic loading of data.

Online payments can be made through Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

"The aim is to ease access and reduce waiting time within the healthcare centre," said Dr Al Hashmi.

"Registration and payment of fees can be done through the app so all an applicant needs is to go to the fast-track at the centre where the waiting time will be minimal.

“The first version of the app was highly utilised by the community with more than 60,000 downloads and more than 73,000 appointments booked through it.

"With the new update, companies will be able to book appointments for their employees with a few simple steps."

Seha runs 12 screening centres across the emirate. There is also a mobile visa screening clinic for companies.

To download the application, visit https://l.ead.me/bcjeFW

Visitors to centres must present a green pass on the Al Hosn app, while unvaccinated visitors must have a negative PCR taken in the past 96 hours.

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