Medical Insurance in Dubai

After getting back from our holiday, dh has been laid low with some horrid symptoms which just got worse today. His sister is a doc back home and recommended some blood tests. So I spent the 1st part of the day checking out if there was a a diagnostic center in Dubai where I could get his blood tests done without a local doctors prescription.

Turns out that regular tests like sugar, cholestrol, liver function, malaria etc can be requested by a patient without a doctors prescription.

I called my husbands company to find the closest diagnostic center recommended by the company insurance providers (so I'd be sure we were going to a good facility) When we reached the diagnostic lab, the receptionist said that we would need to have a local dr prescribe the tests for the insurance cover to work on diagnostics.

They had a GP on the premises who fortunately did not seem to mind that we had recd advice from another dr, when he figured out that his sister knew his case history much better than any other dr ever could. But he also asked us some thorough questions and tried to get to the bottom of the problem and added a few more tests to those that his sister had recommended.

We told him which meds his sister had recommended that he take and the dr gave us a prescription for the local variants after making a few changes and additions of his own (which all seemed very logical)

We just had to pay 50 dhs for the consulting and a bit more for the general meds that weren't covered under insurance. (most of the medicines were covered under insurance) Ended up saving over 500dhs over the evening. This is the first time I am using an efficient insurance system, so I'm truly appreciative. Back home insurance only covers hospital stays for procedures that can't be done on outpatients and there so many complications with the paperwork, so I'd not even thought about insurance for diagnostics until the receptionist at the lab told me about it.

Its great to be in a country where some things work efficiently.

Dust and the problem of housekeeping

Thought I had left all the dust behind me in Egypt, seems it followed me here.

Shh, don't say a word, as of now they think its due to Saddam draining the marshlands in Iraq, little do they know that I'm the one to blame.

While Khamseen season in Egypt meant more dust than usual, in Egypt the dust was black and horribly fine which could only lessen if you mopped the place, else it would just rise in the air on dusting and then lovingly wrap itself around everything, when you thought you were done with the dusting and sweeping.

Called the Shamal in this part of the world, these dust storms seem to be on par for this part of the year although they seem to be gaining intensity each year. Global warming anyone?

Back to differences. This dust too is horridly fine, but its more brownish and yellowish in colour which is normal sandy colour and (Fingers Crossed) the dust will come to an end at the end of this season. Unlike the year round presence in Egypt

The other major problem with housecleaning here, is our cats fur. In Egypt it was spread out across many rooms. Here the house is much much smaller, the layout is all open and the central airconditioning is at roof height which sucks her hair upwards. This is going to make for some very embarassing dinner parties. "Excuse me Kim, but there's some cat fur in my soup" I'm cringing just thinking of the possibility of such a disaster.

Might have to just shave the cat clean. Will save me the weekly cleaning of the air conditioning filters too.