Hamburg opens doors to international patients from UAE

Dubai: With the increasing number of people from the Arab region visiting Hamburg for medical care, the Ministry of Health of Germany on Monday officially opened its doors to international patients offering its state-of-the-art medical services at the first Emirati-German Healthcare Congress held at the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Centre.

“The high standard of medical care in Hamburg has drawn increasing numbers of international patients over the years. For example, about 400 patients from the Arab Region are treated in the University Medical Centre each year,” Elke Badde, Undersecretary of Health and Consumer Protection, said, adding that the number increases regularly.

The most common cases include fertility and family issues, oncology, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, traumatology, orthopaedics and orthopaedic surgery, among others.

To guide potential guests from the UAE and the region on what the city offers, a brochure called Hamburg, which lists comprehensive health solutions and family entertainment options in English and Arabic, was launched at the congress. The brochure comes with a detailed map on the mosques, halal restaurants, and other facilities in Hamburg that cater to the Muslim community there.

“This brochure is based on an idea of His Excellency Minister Al Owais at last year’s Arab Health and it presents information about Hamburg hospitals and tourist attractions in Arabic and English,” she added.

The second largest city in Germany, Hamburg is known as the northern health capital in Europe. Every year, nearly 450,000 patients are treated in its 56 hospitals with 12,000 beds. Its specialities include rehabilitation, treatment for women’s diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and more.

“In international patient care, many travel from the Gulf to Munich, Hamburg, for treatment. Also in Munich, we have been seeing [an influx] of [Arab] patients for the past decade,” Kirsten Staab, director of the Hamburg Representative Office UAE Healthcare Industry Service Centre, told Gulf News.

“This is also why the city of Hamburg has opened up the Healthcare Industry Service Centre last year in January because we feel that this market is extremely important,” Staab added.

The health care congress, organised by the Ministries of Health of UAE and Germany, will run for three days, culminating on March 6. It provides an opportunity for health care professionals to exchange medical experiences and expertise.

Dr Ameen Al Amiri, assistant undersecretary for Medical Practices and Licensing, said he hopes that the joint venture would be beneficial for health care professionals from both countries.

“We meant at the Ministry of Health to organise this conference as a joint venture with the Ministry of Health in Hamburg to make sure that both parties... benefit from this scientific conference, in which this conference is concentrating on many new subjects like stem cells, new orthopaedic surgery, spine surgery, brain surgery, and also health management, and different specialities,” Dr Al Amiri said.