A clinic gets built in a set order. Get it wrong and you pay twice, for a lease on a unit that fails review or a fit-out that does not match the drawings.
Every later decision depends on the clinic's scope. The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) sorts outpatient facilities into categories, and each one has its own minimum team and emergency equipment.
Write down the services, the specialities and who will deliver them. DHA asks for this as a facility overview when you apply. Scope also shapes the building: dental, ENT and ophthalmology need dedicated rooms, and X-ray brings in a second regulator.
HealthcareSetup UAE has separate guides for a polyclinic and a dental clinic if you already know that is your model.
The location of the clinic decides who licenses it.
The rest of this guide uses DHA's published rules as the worked example. Other regulators work to their own documents, so check theirs before relying on any detail here. HealthcareSetup UAE covers the Abu Dhabi route separately, and Pharmareg UAE works on licensing across UAE health regulators.
A new facility licence can start with DHA or with the authority that issues your trade licence, such as Dubai Economy and Tourism or a free zone. DHA accepts either your trade licence details or an expected trade name with ownership information at the application stage. You need a valid trade licence by the time you activate.
The name on the facility licence should reflect the trade name in both Arabic and English, so settle it early. Changing it later means another service application.
If ownership is your open question, HealthcareSetup UAE explains whether a foreigner can own a clinic in Dubai.
The application asks for the location with its Makani number, Dubai's official address number, and a floor plan. So the premises question comes before the licence application.
The floor plan must be designed and approved by a health facility design consultant prequalified by DHA, with room counts that follow DHA's Health Facility Guidelines. Sheryan's own FAQ describes it as a schematic drawing in AutoCAD format, showing each room's area in square metres.
Bring that consultant in before the lease is signed and ask them to test the unit against these questions:
Our guide to clinic layout and fit-out has a to-scale plan and the room sizes.
The application goes through Sheryan. For a new facility licence, DHA asks for:
The licensing team reviews it and replies inside the application. Fees are paid online and are generally non-refundable.
You then receive a facility licence with inactive status, valid for one year. During this period the facility cannot provide healthcare services, receive or treat patients, or promote or advertise any health services.
The year matters. The licence can be renewed with DHA's approval, but failing to complete the requirements within the year can cancel the process and send you back to re-apply. Plan the fit-out and hiring around it. Pharmareg UAE's DHA licensing team handles facility and professional licensing if you want this stage managed.
Inspectors check the finished clinic, so any gap between the approved drawing and the built rooms becomes your problem at the end. If the layout has to change, use DHA's amend facility licence service before you build the change, not after.
DHA requires a pre-construction risk assessment for any new construction, renovation or demolition. Its standard also sets rules for floors, handwashing, sterilisation, security cameras and access control, all covered in our layout and fit-out guide.
Ask your contractor and landlord which building, municipality and civil defence approvals your unit needs. These sit outside the DHA application and vary by building, so get the list in writing before works begin.
Once you hold the inactive facility licence, you can apply for professional licences. They stay inactive too, then activate automatically when the facility does. Nobody can practise before that point.
You must appoint a medical director, and DHA's standard lists the minimum team by category. For a general clinic that is a full-time general practitioner, a full-time registered nurse and an assistant nurse. All healthcare professionals need valid Basic Life Support certification, and the facility must maintain malpractice insurance for all licensed professionals.
HealthcareSetup UAE recruits and credentials clinical teams under a client's licence. The full breakdown by clinic type is in our guide to what a clinic needs before inspection.
Before inspection you need the operating side in place, with paperwork to prove it:
If you are importing equipment, or a device has no UAE registration yet, Pharmareg UAE handles medical device registration and authorised representative work.
Activation needs a valid trade licence, an appointed medical director and a passed DHA inspection. If you install radiology equipment, you also need registration and final approval from the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR).
If the inspection finds something that needs changing, you apply to amend the licence and request a paid re-inspection. After a successful inspection, the licence becomes active and all linked professional licences activate with it.
Being active does not end the paperwork. You complete DHA's capacity survey after activation, and DHA requires prior approval for media and advertising materials, so build that into your launch plan. Sheryan's FAQ says non-hospital facilities should expect at least two routine inspection visits a year.
DHA does not set one size for every clinic. Its sample schedule for three consult rooms comes to 132.5 m² of rooms plus 32% circulation, or 174.9 m², including an optional treatment area. Staff rooms are additional in a stand-alone unit. Your design consultant confirms the real figure against your services.
Not its health services. During the inactive licence period, DHA does not allow a facility to promote or advertise any health services, and media and advertising materials need prior approval once you are active.
No. The facility licence must be active first. Professional licences linked to the facility stay inactive until then.
A health facility design consultant prequalified by DHA. Sheryan's FAQ describes the drawing as an AutoCAD schematic that shows the area of each room in square metres.
HealthcareSetup UAE builds clinics end to end, from company formation to handover, and Pharmareg UAE handles regulatory work, including DHA licensing and medical device registration. Both are brands of the same company and publish this guide.
Company formation, DHA licensing, premises and layout approval, the clinical team and systems, run as one project and handed over ready for the first patient.
healthcaresetup.ae ↗Regulatory affairs in the UAE: DHA facility and professional licensing, NABIDH, inspection readiness, and pharmaceutical and medical device registration.
pharmareguae.com ↗