Prescription Refills and Emergency Numbers

Two pieces of practical knowledge every UAE resident should have and many do not: which number to call
when something goes seriously wrong, and how to keep hold of medication you depend on.

Emergency numbers

These are national numbers reachable from any phone. If you are unsure which service you need, calling
police on 999 will get you routed.

Two things are worth knowing in advance. Be ready to state your location clearly, which is harder than
it sounds in an unfamiliar area — building name, nearest landmark, and the emirate. And know which
emergency department is genuinely nearest to your home and to your workplace, because these are
frequently different hospitals and neither is necessarily the one you would have chosen.

When to call an ambulance rather than drive

People frequently drive themselves or a family member to hospital when an ambulance would be safer,
usually assuming it will be faster.

Call an ambulance for chest pain or suspected heart attack, for stroke symptoms — sudden facial
droop, arm weakness, speech difficulty — for difficulty breathing, severe bleeding, loss of
consciousness, seizures that do not stop, serious injury, or suspected spinal injury.

The reason is not only transport. Ambulance crews begin treatment on the way, and for heart attack and
stroke the interventions that matter are time-critical. Arriving by ambulance also alerts the hospital
before you get there.

Driving is reasonable for injuries and illnesses that are urgent but stable — a probable
fracture, a wound needing stitches, a child with a high fever who is otherwise alert.

Prescription refills

Medication that requires a prescription in the UAE needs one from a practitioner licensed here.
Pharmacies are widely available and generally efficient, but they cannot dispense against a prescription
issued abroad.

This catches new arrivals and visitors regularly, particularly people managing a long-term condition
who assumed their existing prescription would carry over.

The route is straightforward: see a licensed practitioner, bring your medication packaging and any
documentation of the condition, and obtain a local prescription. A GP appointment is usually sufficient
for stable conditions — browse
general practice or
family medicine listings.

Points worth knowing

Bring the packaging, not just the name. Brand names differ between countries, and the
generic name plus the dose is what a doctor here will work from.

Some medications are controlled here that are not elsewhere. Certain painkillers,
sedatives, psychiatric medications and even some cold remedies are more tightly regulated in the UAE than
in other countries. Travelling in with them without documentation can cause serious difficulty, and
obtaining them requires the appropriate prescription.

Do not have medication posted to you. Importing prescription medication by post is
restricted, and the consequences are not merely that the parcel is delayed.

Expect monitoring requirements. A practitioner issuing long-term repeats will
reasonably want evidence the condition is being monitored — recent blood pressure, recent bloods,
whatever the medication requires. This is good practice rather than obstruction.

Remote consultation may work for stable repeats, within the limits described in
NABIDH and telemedicine in the UAE.

Running out, and how not to

Running out of essential medication is a self-inflicted emergency and an entirely avoidable one.

Request repeats before you reach the last few days, not on the final tablet. Keep a note of the generic
names and doses of everything you take, separate from the packaging. Carry enough for the trip plus a
margin when travelling, including domestically, since a prescription written in one emirate is not always
straightforward to fill in another.

If you are moving between emirates or arriving in the country, arrange the local prescription early
rather than after supplies run low — see
your medical records and Malaffi on carrying your own history.

Pharmacists are underused

Pharmacists in the UAE are accessible, frequently multilingual, and qualified to answer a great many
questions that do not need an appointment.

Use them for clarifying how to take something, checking interactions with anything else you take,
identifying whether a symptom is a likely side effect, and advice on minor ailments. Where a consultation
left you unclear about instructions — a common problem where language is a factor — a
pharmacist will explain them, as discussed in
finding a doctor who speaks your language in the UAE.

They will also tell you when something needs a doctor, which is itself useful.

Preparing before you need it

Everything above works better if a small amount of preparation has already happened, and none of it
takes long.

Save the emergency numbers in your phone, and make sure anyone living with you knows them —
including children old enough to use a phone. People who have moved from other countries frequently dial
the number from home by reflex under stress.

Identify the nearest emergency department to your home and to your workplace, by name, and confirm
whether each is in your insurance network. Knowing this calmly in advance removes a decision you do not
want to be making at the time.

Keep a short written summary of your own history — diagnoses, current medications with doses,
allergies and the reaction each causes — somewhere reachable from your phone, and make sure a
family member knows where it is. The situations where this matters most are exactly the ones where you
cannot recite it.

Keep your insurance details accessible offline rather than only in an app that needs a connection.

What to expect at an emergency department

Emergency departments in the UAE operate on triage: patients are seen in order of clinical urgency
rather than arrival. Someone who arrived after you may well be seen first, and that is the system
working rather than failing.

Bring identification and your insurance card if you have them, but do not delay attending to find
them. Bring your medication list, or the medications themselves.

Tell the triage nurse the most concerning symptom first and plainly. Understating things out of
politeness is common and unhelpful; the triage assessment determines how quickly you are seen.

If your condition changes while waiting — pain worsening, breathing becoming harder — tell
someone rather than waiting your turn. Triage is a snapshot, and it can be revised.

Out-of-hours, when it is not an emergency

A large proportion of emergency department attendances are for problems that are urgent but not
emergencies, largely because people do not know what else is open.

Many clinics in the UAE operate extended hours, and some pharmacies operate around the clock.
Teleconsultation services cover a good deal of the ground that would otherwise become a late-night
hospital visit, particularly for children with fever, minor injuries and medication questions —
see NABIDH and telemedicine in the UAE.

Ask your own clinic what their out-of-hours arrangement is before you need it. Establishing that on a
quiet weekday is considerably easier than working it out at eleven at night.

Travelling with medication

Bringing medication into the UAE deserves specific attention, because the rules are stricter than most
travellers expect and the consequences of getting it wrong are disproportionate.

Some substances that are freely available or routinely prescribed elsewhere are controlled here.
Certain strong painkillers, sedatives, sleep medications, psychiatric medications and some preparations
containing codeine fall into this category.

The safe approach is consistent: carry medication in its original packaging with the pharmacy label
intact, bring a copy of the prescription and ideally a letter from your prescribing doctor stating the
condition and the medication, and check in advance whether anything you take requires prior approval to
bring in. Where it does, that approval is obtained before travelling rather than at the border.

Do not carry medication for someone else, and do not arrange for anything to be posted to you.

For residents travelling out and back, the same principles apply on return, and a repeat prescription
issued here is the cleanest documentation to carry.

The short version

Learn the four emergency numbers and save them. Know which emergency department is nearest to home and
to work. Never delay emergency care over documentation or insurance — that is settled in your
favour and the delay is the only real risk.

For medication, get a local prescription early rather than late, keep a written note of generic names
and doses, carry original packaging when travelling, and use your pharmacist for the many questions that
do not need an appointment.