Shortage of hospitals in 'New Dubai' areas: Report

The ‘New Dubai’ areas facing shortage of healthcare facilities as most of the facilities exist in ‘Old Dubai’, said a new study.

“Dubai has experienced a significant construction boom during the last decade across all asset classes in general, including the healthcare sector. However, 71 per cent of the hospitals in Dubai are located in what is commonly referred to as ‘Old Dubai’, which presents an opportunity for establishing new facilities in the ‘New Dubai’ areas, such as MBZ Road, Al Khail Road and along Sheikh Zayed Road,” Mansoor Ahmed, Director of Healthcare, Education and PPP at Colliers International, said.

Colliers International’s new study said that the emirate’s private healthcare sector will need a minimum of approximately 1,500 new hospital beds with an estimated new investment of $1.5 billion (Dh5.5 billion) by 2020.

"The healthcare landscape in Dubai has changed significantly over the last five years. As international players have entered the market to meet the growing demand for services, competition has increased, providing patients with greater choice," said Ahmed.

He said: "To further establish Dubai as a medical and wellness tourism hub, healthcare providers could offer tailor-made comprehensive medical and wellness tourism packages which include costs of medical treatment, visa, hotel stays and even recreational activities for accompanying family members. What we recommend is that hospitals work in collaboration with airlines, hotels and health authorities to successfully establish Dubai as a medical tourism hub. If medical tourism in Dubai were to capture 2 per cent of its international tourists in 2015, an additional $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) in revenues would be generated by the healthcare sector."

Population growth is one the key factors driving demand for healthcare in Dubai, with the population expected to reach 3.5 million by 2020. Other key factors that are expected to contribute to the growth of the sector include a large concentration of Generation X & Y, increasing prevalence of lifestyle diseases, the introduction of compulsory healthcare insurance, high returns of healthcare investment and promoting Dubai as a regional and international medical and wellness hub, the study said.

"Dubai offers healthcare investors and operators a very unique proposition; it has one of the fastest population growth rates in the world coupled with rising wealth levels. Due to rapid urbanisation and unhealthy lifestyles of a large number of the population in Dubai, this has led to an increase in chronic diseases previously uncommon to the region," added Ahmed.

The report revealed that, comparing healthcare indicators in Dubai to other developed countries such as the US, UK and Germany, the ratio of doctors, nurses and beds per 1,000 population is low and offers significant opportunities for growth. The overall bed capacity in Dubai reached a total of 3,816 beds by the end of 2012 compared to 3,155 beds in 2008, recording a CAGR of 4.9 per cent.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.