The developing healthcare and medical tourism sector in the United Arab Emirates faces challenges to its long-term sustainability due to the relatively high cost of medical provision in the country, according to Grant Thornton; one of the world’s leading independently owned accounting and consulting firms.
The developing healthcare and medical tourism sector in the United Arab Emirates faces challenges to its long-term sustainability due to the relatively high cost of medical provision in the country, according to Grant Thornton; one of the world’s leading independently owned accounting and consulting firms.
Competitor countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have already established a strong reputation for quality, low-cost healthcare provision, and therefore have significant first-mover advantages compared to the UAE, according to “Transforming the Middle East’s healthcare model,” a new research report by Grant Thornton.
Farouk Mohamed of Grant Thornton UAE points out that the average cost of heart bypass surgery in the UAE is US$44,000, compared with an average of US$18,500 in Singapore, US$11,000 in Thailand, US$10,000 in India and US$9,000 in Malaysia. He adds,” While the cost of healthcare provision in the UAE compares very favourably with most Western markets, the long-term development of the country’s medical tourism sector remains extremely price-dependent.” Grant Thornton argues that development of the medical tourism sector in the UAE is dependent upon more competitive costs, as the existing infrastructure in the UAE, and especially Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), is already well developed.
But DHCC has problems. Time stops on the website in 2008, while details of what hospitals and clinics are still there, and when new ones will open, have vanished. IMTJ has been unable to get any response from DHCC. DHCC’s flagship hospital will not hit its original 2011 completion target, as like many building sites in the state, work has stopped. So far, only the hospital’s foundations are finished, with exposed steel protruding from the ground. The 400-bed University Hospital, the jewel in the crown of the healthcare city, now has no firm opening date. DHCC was launched in 2002, in a bid to stem the tide of local patients seeking medical care abroad and houses 80 outpatient clinics. Dubai Holding, Dubai Healthcare City’s state-owned parent company, has struggled to finish many of its grand projects, which include the sprawling leisure and entertainment development Dubailand.The Dubai government has serious debt problems that credit experts say exceeds $150 billion, raising questions over how or if projects such as Dubai Healthcare City will be financed to completion.
For DHCC, the news just gets worse. One of DHCC’s most prestigious healthcare brands, the US-based Mayo Clinic, has closed its clinical practice due to a lack of patients. Dr. Taysir Khatib, the Mayo Clinic’s regional office manager for the Middle East, reports that there were too few patients for even one cardiologist in Dubai, and were barely able to break even. The Mayo Clinic has reverted to a regional office that attracts local patients to its US hospital.
The Emirates’ plans to attract international medical institutions such as Mayo to Dubai Healthcare City were drawn up to reverse a long-lasting trend of patients seeking medical care abroad. The U.A.E. spends nearly $3 billion annually on sending its citizens to clinics in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere for specialist health care.
In 2009, outpatient care centre, Dubai Medical Suites (DMS), closed less than six months after its launch. Unveiled in January 2009, DMS was intended to attract foreign hospitals, which would offer visiting specialists and share the costs of funding the 20-clinic centre. But it failed to spark the interest of US and European hospitals facing a recession in their home markets. DHCC has seen 200,000 patients, mostly locals or expatriates, in three years of operation. It has offered financial breaks, such as reduced rents, to a number of clinics in a bid to help them through the economic crisis but lack of patients, high rents, and regulatory requirements have seen a number close.
On another part of the medical tourism equation, the cost of hotel accommodation for patients and families, Dubai has been accused of not understanding that to compete with other tourism areas, they must follow the market in offering lower prices and better packages, as the boom time of the last decade will not happen even if global recession ends. One of the UK’s biggest tour operators has warned Dubai hoteliers that unless they become more flexible with their pricing, they will continue to lose out. Glenn McCool of Tui, says,” “My message to hoteliers is reduce rates more, make your food prices cheaper and offer all-inclusive packages. Dubai is a stopover or short-break market with a lack of all-inclusive deals, high room rates and expensive food. Dubai room rates have come down by around 25-35 % compared to peak 2008 prices, but need to come down a further 50-60 %.”
©2024 All rights reserved LaingBuisson 
