How to Start a Home Healthcare Company in Dubai: DHA Licence, Staff and Costs

Why investors are looking at home care

Home care is the fastest-growing part of Dubai's licensed health sector. A DHA report covered by Khaleej Times on 16 October 2026 counted 249 home healthcare facilities in the first half of 2026, up from 203 a year earlier, a rise of 22.7%. That means demand, but also competition for the same families and referring doctors.

Standalone company or add-on service?

DHA's Standards for Home Healthcare Services list the facility types allowed to provide home care. They include hospitals, day surgery centres, general clinics, polyclinics, specialty and dental clinics, dialysis, oncology and psychiatric centres, medical labs, TCAM centres, clinical support facilities, long-term care facilities and the standalone home healthcare facility.

DHA also says any service delivered at a patient's home falls under home healthcare. A clinic sending a doctor or physiotherapist on house calls therefore needs the add-on.

Licensing steps for a standalone company

1. Define your services. Typical lines are nursing, elderly care, post-operative and wound care, physiotherapy, doctor visits, and antenatal, postnatal and paediatric care. In-home dialysis and in-home dental care have their own sections in the standard, with extra rules.
2. Form the company and reserve a trade name with Dubai Economy and Tourism or a free zone. Who can own it is covered in can a non-doctor own a clinic.
3. Lease an office. Home care is delivered in homes, but the facility still needs premises. The standard says it must meet DHA's health facility design guidelines and display the licence at its central administrative office. It must also post a patient rights charter in Arabic and English at the entrance. Plan storage for medicines, equipment and clinical waste.
4. Apply for a New Facility Licence on Sheryan with an AutoCAD layout of the office. Approval gives an inactive licence valid for one year.
5. Write your policies. The standard lists 20 required policy areas, from patient acceptance criteria and medication management to staff safety, telehealth use and handover. Inspectors check them.
6. Recruit and license staff. Every professional must hold a DHA licence (DHA licence guide, nurse licensing and jobs) and malpractice cover (malpractice insurance guide).
7. Arrange transport. The facility, not the nurse, is responsible for getting staff to visits safely.
8. Pass final inspection, activate, then aim for accreditation. DHA recommends that standalone home care facilities get accredited within two years by an ISQua-approved body such as JCI, Accreditation Canada, ACHSI or EIAC.

Staffing rules in the 2025 standard

• Medical director: required. They supervise professional staff and own the policies.
• Minimum team: at least one physician and one registered nurse.
• Nursing mix: only registered nurses (RN) and assistant nurses (AN) may provide nursing, at a ratio of no more than three ANs per RN (1:3).
• RN supervision of ANs: daily or regular remote check-ins. An RN must visit in person at least weekly for moderate-to-intensive patients and every two weeks for lower-acuity patients.
• Wider team (optional): dentists, physiotherapists and assistants, occupational, respiratory and speech therapists, dietitians, psychologists and clinical social workers.
• CPD: physicians need 40 hours a year to renew their licences and nurses need 20.

The standard requires everyone delivering home healthcare to be licensed and registered with DHA. Unlicensed caregivers and nannies are therefore a different business and cannot deliver these services.

Which patients you can accept

This is where many business plans go wrong. Under the standard:

• Patients must be referred by a physician.
• A qualified physician must assess the patient face to face before home care starts.
• Patients should be homebound or semi-homebound, or need skilled care at home such as IV therapy, wound care, tube or tracheostomy care, rehabilitation, palliative, antenatal, postnatal, paediatric or mental health care.
• The patient must be medically stable, the family must agree, and the home must be suitable.

In practice, your growth depends on referring doctors as much as on families searching online. Plan both.

What it costs

From DHA's services guide (updated March 2023) and its 2025 facility fee list:

The services guide does not name the standalone home healthcare facility in its annual licence fee lines, which cover polyclinics, specialty clinics, pharmacies, clinical support and "others". Confirm the fee for your category in Sheryan before you budget.

The rest varies with your model. Payroll is the largest cost and depends on how many nurses you employ and whether you offer 12-hour or 24-hour shifts. Vehicles or ride costs, medical equipment loaned to patients, insurance network setup, visas and accreditation all add up, and none have a fixed price. See cost to open a clinic in Dubai for comparable lines.

Marketing before you open

Set up your Google Business Profile as a service-area business with your covered districts, and add a future opening date so it shows 90 days before launch. Build one landing page per service (home nursing, elderly care, physiotherapy at home, doctor visits) and plan pre-opening Google Ads, with negative keywords that block nurse job seekers from day one. Line up referring doctors in parallel, because DHA requires a physician referral for every patient. Your ads must follow DHA's medical advertisement standard with medical director sign-off. Get a free launch plan, or see our home healthcare marketing service. After launch, read how to get more home healthcare patients and advertising to families abroad.

Frequently asked questions

Can I run a home healthcare company without a doctor?

No. DHA requires a medical director and at least one physician and one registered nurse, and a physician must assess each patient face to face before care starts.

Do I need an office for a home healthcare licence in Dubai?

Yes. The standard requires the facility to meet DHA's design guidelines, display its licence at a central administrative office and post a patient rights charter at the entrance.

How much does it cost to add home healthcare to my clinic?

DHA's 2025 facility fee list sets the home healthcare add-on at AED 2,000 a year, applied for through Sheryan. Your home care staff still need DHA licences.

Can assistant nurses work alone in patients' homes?

They can deliver care within their scope, but each registered nurse may oversee no more than three assistant nurses, with regular check-ins and in-person visits at least every one or two weeks depending on patient acuity.

Is accreditation mandatory for home healthcare in Dubai?

DHA recommends it rather than mandating it. Standalone home care facilities are advised to get accredited within two years of licensing by an ISQua-approved body such as JCI or EIAC.

Sources

• DHA Standards for Home Healthcare Services, version 1 (effective 19 February 2025)
• DHA Facility Services Fees (2025)
• DHA Health Regulation Sector services guide (fees, updated 21 March 2023)
• DHA Sheryan: Frequently asked questions
• Khaleej Times: Dubai home healthcare facilities rise 22.7% (16 October 2026)
• DHA Standards for Medical Advertisement Content on Social Media
• Google Business Profile Help: Add an opening date

Published 18 Oct 2026 · Access One