Established with the rise of the Union in 1971, the Ministry of Health was in dire need of distinguished national cadres; and Dr. Saud Kayed AI-Qassimi was one of these. Early in May 1972, he joined the Ministry's staff as Director of Therapeutic Medicine Department; a division that constitutes the very raison d'etre of the Ministry whose principal objective is to provide medical treatment for the population, nationals and expatriates alike.

Born in Dubai in 1942, Dr Sayed Jaafar Mohamed had received his pre-university education in the emirate, ultimately obtaining the High School Certificate in 1963. He them headed for Egypt where he studied medicine. In 1970 he obtained his MBBS. Two years later, he had completed the internship year and a diploma.

Upon returning home in 1972, Dr. Sayed started his career at the Al-Maktoum Hospital's General Surgery Department. When Rashid Hospital was opened he moved there to establish a new surgery department in conjunction with other colleagues.

In 1977 he was the first UAE doctor to gain specialization in general surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Britain.

Dr. Zeinab Abdulla Kazim

In Dubai she was born in 1935, and to Dubai she had returned in 1964 as the first national woman doctor.

Keen on her education, the father had accompanied the entire family to India so that they may receive good education there. In 1955, Zeinab graduated from the high school in Bombay, and two years later she successfully completed the premedical program. In 1963, she graduated from Grant Medical College in Bombay. After a one-year internship there, she returned to here homeland.

The year 1964 witnessed her rebirth, this time as the first ever-national woman doctor. She was appointed at the Kuwait Hospital to meet women's medical needs, and continued to discharge her duties there until 1969 when, believing that she could render better and greater services to women, she established her own special clinic.

Born in AI-Ain in 1938, Sulaiman Ahmad Al-Houqani learned and recited the Quoran at the age of nine. The quest for knowledge and learning took him to Kenya where he gained in 1954 a certificate qualifying him as an assistant physician and drug composer. He later worked in Saudi Arabia, and then in Qatar. Returning to AI-Ain in 1959, he became the first assistant physician to practice there. The health care situation at that time was too critical, and the area received part of its health care needs at British Army camps.

Born in Dubai in 1945, Fareed Al-Gurq was the first UAE national to head for Britain following the establishment of the union state, having received a grant from H.H. the late Sheikh Rashid Bin Said Al-Maktoum, then Ruler of Dubai.

While studying in Britain, he worked at a hospital until 1977 when he gained a certificate qualifying him as a medical lab specialist. He then returned home armed with practical and scientific experiences. Huge tasks were awaiting him however, as immediately upon his return he was appointed supervisor of the Al-Maktoum Hospital Medical Laboratories. He soon embarked upon the modernization of this laboratory, turning it into an up-to-date one possessing the latest equipment, thus enabling it, in a record time, to successfully undertake its mission. He was later shifted to Rashid Hospital to establish a new medical laboratory there.