Former Israeli PM Bennett calls for declaring Qatar ‘an enemy’, launching pressure campaign
The former Israeli prime minister said he would direct Israel’s security agencies to gather intelligence and prepare plans as part of a wider diplomatic, economic and public pressure campaign if…
Expert Modhi al-Hajri has advocated for a unified national platform to issue and transmit sick-leave certificates electronically in Qatar. She argues that such a system would enhance document security, simplify administration, and align with the country's broader digital transformation efforts. Al-Hajri emphasized that sick leave should be considered an official record linked to employees' rights, workplace discipline, and the safeguarding of public funds.
She questioned why some organizations still utilize paper certificates when electronic systems have demonstrated success in other public health sectors. Currently, employees of the Hamad Medical Corporation and Primary Health Care Corporation have their sick-leave certificates transmitted directly to human-resources systems, bypassing the need for paper submission and manual review.
However, other government bodies and schools continue to process certificates manually, leading to inconsistent procedures and increased vulnerability to document fraud. Al-Hajri stressed that sick leave can only be issued by authorized physicians, such as family doctors, emergency physicians, or specialists, and that safeguarding the certificate post-issuance is as crucial as verifying its source, especially as artificial intelligence tools make document manipulation more feasible.
She proposed a national electronic platform tied to each person's identification number, allowing sick leave certificates from healthcare institutions to be sent directly to employers' human-resources departments or, for students, to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the respective school, eliminating the requirement for employees, students, or guardians to carry paper copies.
Al-Hajri added that the system could expedite processing, standardize government services, minimize paper usage, and alleviate administrative burdens. Moreover, a secure national database could facilitate health and workforce planning while upholding the confidentiality of medical information. Periodic, anonymized reporting could assist authorities in tracking sick-leave trends, planning services, and identifying irregular patterns for review.
Al-Hajri cautioned that any AI implementation must be governed by safeguards that protect employees' rights and personal data. The proposed platform could eventually be extended to cover other types of official leave, including maternity and paternity leave, leave to accompany a patient, and absences due to workplace injuries, ultimately creating an integrated national system for managing government leave.
Al-Hajri emphasized that true digital transformation involves constructing connected systems that prevent tampering, safeguard official records, save time, and bolster public confidence, asserting that government documents should not be carried by hand when they can be securely transmitted through digital means.
Written by urgent.news from Gulf Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
