Dubai: Medical tourism patients will soon be able to avail of special insurance packages to cover any post-operative complications.
This insurance will cover the complete cost of travel, stay and surgery if required to correct a complication within three months of the first surgery. This would also allow the patient to avail of the visa to revisit Dubai for redressal of this health issue.
This was disclosed by Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, Acting head Dubai Health Authority’s Medical Regulation Department and Director of the Medical Tourism Initiative.
The announcement at a press conference on the second day of the Arab Health Congress in Dubai.
Dr Layla said: “Dubai has a very high standard of health care with minimal chances of medical complications as compared to the rest of the world, but to safeguard a patient’s interest we are introducing this insurance which will not cover the cost of the primary surgery but help the individual in case of a complication within three months after the initial treatment. At the moment, we are studying a scheme whereby the insurance will be tailor-made for medical tourists. It will be different from travel insurance although it will cover all the components of travel insurance. The idea is to have a single insurance that suffices. The medical tourist will be able to purchase this through our website.”
She added: “The policy will cover medical expenses, including flights for the return trip and accommodation — all these expenses will be covered up to a certain amount which is dependent on the insurance policy selected.”
She clarified that the insurance cover was exclusive of the laws in place already in the health sector to safeguard the patient in case of a medical error. “There is already a system of clinical governance in place with medical malpractices laws where the patient can seek redressal in courts through disciplinary action against a clinic, doctor or hospital and seek compensation via the legal system.”
Speaking to Gulf News, Eisa Al Maidour, Director-General of DHA, said: “Today in Dubai we have more than 2,700 medical centres, clinics and hospitals together and nearly 80 per cent of these have international accreditation.”
Thorough public-private partnership, he said, they have made huge investments and are moving towards centres of excellence. “Our health expenditure is about Dh12 billion annually and we have developed a good system of supervision and inspection.
“The insurance cover will depend on the effective collaboration between local and international insurance providers. We are working with all relevant stakeholders and studying this initiative to further boost medical tourism. We aim to increase our medical tourist footfall to have about 500,000 overseas patients who will spend about Dh2.6 billion annually on health expenses by 2020. This is our projection.”
