The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE), in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Prevention, announced an amendment to the nature of jobs targeted for Emiratisation in the private healthcare sector, where the mandated annual Emiratisation rate of 2 percent will now require roles allocated to UAE citizens be split equally between specialised healthcare professions and other skilled jobs within the healthcare facility.

Private healthcare facilities, like all other private sector establishments, employing 50 workers or more are required to achieve a 2 percent annual growth in Emiratisation rates of their skilled jobs. Half of this must be achieved in the first half of the year, while the remaining half can be accomplished during the second half.

The Ministry’s announcement maintains this mechanism for targeted private healthcare facilities, while mandating that the nature of jobs targeted for Emiratisation must now equally include both skilled roles and specialised healthcare jobs.

Farida Al Ali, Assistant Undersecretary of National Talents at MoHRE, said that modifying the targeted skilled jobs to include specialised healthcare professionals follows a comprehensive evaluation of private healthcare jobs, conducted in collaboration with partners across the sector. The new measure, she explained, aims to support and empower national talents and enhance their presence in health jobs, which serves to improve the quality of private healthcare services and ensure their sustainability by supplying the sector with specialised Emirati healthcare professionals who typically seek stability, job security, and professional development.

She called on all healthcare facilities subject to these Emiratisation requirements to assess their current situation and set clear plans to comply with the new targets. This pertains particularly to facilities that have already achieved the 1 percent growth in skilled jobs required for the first half of 2026, she noted, urging them to work towards achieving 1 percent growth in the Emiratisation rates of their healthcare jobs in the second half of the year.

Al Ali invited these healthcare facilities to post their job vacancies on the Nafis platform to access the significant pool of national talents registered there, who are qualified to fill healthcare positions, advising the establishments to adhere to approved health professions when appointing Emirati citizens.

For his part, Abdullah Ahli, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for the Support Services Sector at the Ministry of Health and Prevention, affirmed that the decision reflects the close alignment of government efforts to strengthen the presence of Emirati talent in the private healthcare sector, in line with the UAE’s vision to build a sustainable healthcare ecosystem driven by qualified professionals capable of meeting the evolving demands of the future.

The initiative, he added, also supports wider national efforts to enhance the attractiveness of healthcare professions to Emiratis, while encouraging private healthcare providers to recruit, empower, and retain national talent across the sector.

He noted that allocating 50 percent of annual Emiratisation targets within private healthcare establishments to healthcare-related roles forms part of a wider government strategy to expand the participation of UAE nationals across the healthcare workforce. This, he explained, creates access to high-value career opportunities in a vital sector defined by its stability, growth, and long-term professional development.

Abdullah Ahli went on to underscore the importance of ensuring private healthcare establishments adhere to the approved healthcare professions framework when recruiting Emirati nationals, in order to ensure that national talent is integrated into meaningful and value-driven career pathways that contribute to enhancing the quality of healthcare services and further strengthening the competitiveness and resilience of the UAE healthcare sector.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation is set to resume, at the beginning of 2027, its efforts to assess the extent to which targeted private healthcare facilities have complied with the new requirement to ensure the number of Emirati professionals employed in their skilled and specialised healthcare jobs are split equally. Non-compliant establishments will be required to pay financial contributions.

The total number of Emirati professionals working in the private healthcare sector exceeded 8,800 by the end of 2025, with Emirati women accounting for 82 percent of them, which reflects the appeal of this sector to UAE citizens, and particularly women.

The wise leadership’s directives to extend the Nafis programme until 2040 reaffirm the importance of the Emiratisation strategy as a national priority aimed at empowering Emirati men and women, enhancing their competitiveness, and establishing an attractive and stable work environment that enables them to participate effectively in their country’s sustainable development with their excellent performance across various economic sectors.