Dubai: Unpaid salaries of doctors, staff to be settled by seizing hospital equipment

A court has ordered the seizure of equipment at a healthcare facility in Dubai to pay off creditors and unpaid staff, including doctors and nurses.

The Dubai Court-mandated seizure follows a site inspection conducted in March this year by a court-appointed executor, who catalogued all medical equipment and furniture at the clinic.

Items seized include advanced diagnostic tools such as X-ray machines, automated analysers, and bronchoscopy equipment worth millions of dirhams. Even basic essentials, like patient beds, infusion pumps, and blood pressure monitors, were confiscated. Among the most valuable assets was a catheterisation cardiac system worth Dh1.7 million.

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The court’s enforcement action came after the hospital failed to settle significant debts owed to creditors and unpaid staff. With the facility unable to meet its obligations, the court approved the confiscation of assets to recover dues.

The decision has drawn mixed reactions from the hospital's employees many of whom had endured months without pay. “For too long, the hospital failed us,” said a former physician. “Justice has finally been served.” A nurse added: “I struggled to pay rent and bills. This is bittersweet — it’s the end of a workplace, but also a chance for us to be compensated."

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