SHA Remediation Courses for Healthcare Professionals in Sharjah

Until recently, most professionals in Sharjah dealt with the federal health ministry. That changed when the Sharjah Executive Council issued a decision on 15 July 2025, now known as Executive Council Resolution No. 29 of 2025, setting up a local system for health facilities and health professions. Its reach is wide: Sharjah government health establishments, private facilities anywhere in the emirate including its free zones, and everyone who practises in them. Federal hospitals and clinics in Sharjah stay outside it.

According to the Council's announcement, the Resolution deals with four things:

• what the Sharjah Health Authority may do, from licensing facilities and individual professionals to checking the quality of care;
• three kinds of committee, dealing with accountability, medical practice and grievances;
• the conditions for facility permits and professional licences;
• administrative penalties, fees and enforcement through the courts.

A further step came on 19 May 2026, when the Council amended the Resolution to give it administrative penalties for violations. The stated purpose was better compliance and oversight, fewer professional breaches and stronger protection of patients.

The English-language announcements describe the shape of the system but not its working rules. You will not find there how long you have to reply, how hearings run, how long a grievance can take or what each penalty is. Expect the letter you receive, and the written answers you ask for, to fill those gaps.

Sharjah is in an overlap period. The new Resolution gives the SHA private and local government facilities, yet the federal ministry's service for complaints about private facilities still names Sharjah in its list. A quick way through is to check two licences: the one your facility holds and the one you hold.

Whatever you conclude, answer every letter by the date it sets. If you think it has come from the wrong body, say so politely in your reply, explain that you are checking jurisdiction, and keep copies. Arguing about jurisdiction after a deadline has passed is a much weaker position than raising it on time.

A short, polite letter asking for the basis of the case is normal practice. It gives the committee a clear file and gives you firm dates.

Patients reach the SHA through a Medical Complaint Service listed among its e-services, so a case reference should exist from the start. Ask for it if your letter does not show it.

With the SHA's working rules not yet published in full, your own record of the case may be the clearest account of dates and requests that anyone holds. Start it the day the first letter arrives and add to it whenever something moves.

Write up phone calls as soon as they end and confirm anything important by email. Add your learning to the same log, with course dates and the changes you made, so that the story of the procedure and the story of your engagement sit side by side. If the file moves between the SHA and MOHAP, the log shows exactly when and why.

Local procedure aside, the Medical Liability Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 4 of 2016) covers every practitioner in the country, and the SHA names it among the legislation it applies. So the medical-error part of a Sharjah case follows a familiar federal pattern.

Which first-tier committee now hears errors from Sharjah facilities has not been announced. The notice you receive should name it.

Two sets of rules could support a penalty, and the grievance route depends on which one a decision uses.

• The Sharjah Resolution, as amended in 2026. It now carries administrative penalties for violators. Their types and amounts are not set out in the English announcements, so ask for them.
• Physicians and dentists, federally. Federal Law No. 5 of 2019 allows outcomes from a written notice or warning up to revocation, including suspension for as long as a year and fines that can reach AED 1,000,000. A grievance must be lodged within 15 days.
• Nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, federally. Federal Law No. 6 of 2023 runs from a written reprimand to removal from the register, with suspension of up to six months and fines up to AED 50,000. Again, 15 days to lodge a grievance.

The federal medicine law treats a local body in charge of health within its own area as a "health authority", which is why federal penalties can be relevant to a local regulator. How the two sets fit together in Sharjah has not been explained in English. When a decision arrives, find the instrument and article it cites before you do anything else.

We have not found a code of ethics issued by the SHA itself. Its legislation page instead points to federal laws, and those are where your duties come from in practice.

Two national documents apply across the board: the 2017 Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct for Health Professionals (Ministerial Resolution No. 1448) and the 2021 Patient's Rights and Responsibilities Charter (Ministerial Resolution No. 14). The SHA also worked with the DOH and MOHAP on the national Healthcare Workforce Bioethics Guidelines released in August 2024.

In Sharjah, licensing paperwork is filed by the employer. Your facility's licensing officer submits renewals, changes and cancellations on the SHA portal for you, which means the facility will know about anything that affects your file and should be kept informed.

• Renewal. SHA renewal requires the yearly minimum of CME/CPD points set by the national qualification requirements (PQR), related to your specialty. The file also needs valid malpractice cover and a valid facility licence, with any fines settled; over the age of 60 you also need a health report.
• Timing. You can renew up to three months ahead of expiry, and late renewal attracts monthly penalties. Update your CME record on the SHA system before the facility files, not after.
• Good standing. The SHA certificate depends on a stamped letter from your facility's medical director stating that you have no disciplinary history there. While a case is open, or after a penalty, that letter may be difficult to give, so plan any move to another emirate or country with this in mind.
• Coming back. The SHA runs a Return-to-Work Program for people who have been out of practice for three years or more. If your absence is due to a suspension, ask whether it applies to you.

Your licensing authority decides how any learning counts towards your CPD or a requirement it has set. Each certificate shows the title, CPD hours and date of completion, so the SHA or your facility can check exactly what you studied.

In Sharjah your facility sits unusually close to your licence. Its licensing officer files your renewals, its medical director signs the letter behind your good standing certificate, and since the 2026 amendment the facility itself can face administrative penalties. That makes it a party with its own interest in the case, not only your employer.

• Agree who speaks to whom. Ask your medical director whether the SHA has contacted the facility and who will reply on its behalf.
• Keep the accounts consistent. If the facility prepares a report, ask to see the factual parts that concern you before it goes, and correct any errors politely in writing.
• Keep your interests separate. The facility's advisers act for the facility. Ask your insurer, or a lawyer of your own, to check your statements.
• Tell the licensing officer early. Renewals, CME updates and any change in status pass through that person, so mention it if a renewal falls during the case.
• Make change visible at work. A new template or log agreed with the clinic manager is easier to verify than a change only you know about.

If relations with the facility become strained, keep communication written and courteous. A committee may read both accounts.

1. Pin down the basis. Which committee, which article, which response date. Put the request in writing.
2. See the evidence first. Ask for the complaint, any facility report and the record pages the committee holds, so your reply deals with the actual allegation.
3. Freeze the notes. Federal rules require each step of care to be recorded with what it was and when it happened, and records must be kept for 25 years or more. Leave earlier entries untouched; anything new goes in as a clearly dated late note.
4. Call your insurer early. Medical error cover is compulsory and is bought by the facility owner. Policies often have their own notification rules and may fund legal help.
5. Brief your facility. The 2026 penalties apply to providers as well as to people, so your employer may be answering questions about the same event.
6. Write your account. A timeline, the guideline you followed, what you would now do differently and what you have already changed.
7. Assume the deadline is short. Federal penalty grievances allow 15 days and liability grievances 30. Work to the shorter period until the SHA tells you otherwise in writing.

A committee reading your file will be looking for three things, whatever the procedure turns out to be.

Less is often more. Two or three well-chosen courses and a careful reflection make a stronger file than a stack of loosely related certificates. If the committee orders particular training, do exactly that; your own choice of learning sits alongside it unless the SHA agrees otherwise.

This example is illustrative, not a real case. A general practitioner at a private clinic in Sharjah is told that a patient has complained about an examination carried out without a third person in the room and without her agreement being sought first.

• Who holds it. The clinic and the doctor both have SHA licences, so she expects an SHA committee. Her letter names no committee or date, so her first reply asks for both and for the article relied on.
• The rule. Federal law forbids examining a patient of the opposite sex without a third party and the patient's prior agreement, outside emergencies. The Patient's Charter also gives patients the right to be told who is treating them and to understand a procedure before agreeing to it.
• The record. Her note describes the examination but not who was present or what she said beforehand. She does not touch it, and writes her recollection on a separate, dated sheet.
• Learning and change. She completes courses on consent and chaperones and on communication, writes a reflection centred on how the patient felt, and agrees a chaperone log and a note template with the clinic manager.
• Her reply sets out the facts, admits the gap in her note plainly and encloses the certificates, the reflection and the new template, all dated.

This does not decide the outcome. It does give the committee the material it needs to judge her insight and the risk of the same thing happening again.

This set covers the process, the federal liability rules, the reflection a committee looks for and the communication skills behind many Sharjah complaints. Add the ethics course for your licence: doctors, nurses and midwives, dentists, pharmacists or allied health professionals.

Courses are online and self-paced on any device. Each one includes UAE case studies and reflection prompts, ends with a 20-question scenario-based assessment (30 questions in the 4-hour core investigation course) with an 80% pass mark, and gives you a certificate of completion and a structured reflective account. For how Sharjah compares with Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the federal system, see the UAE complaints guide.