On the agenda

Truth, strangely, has a certain diabolical dimension. Like the award-winning, landmark Japanese film Rashomon of 1950s by Kurosowa sought to emphasise, the subjectivity of truth is an unimpeachable reality.

Rashomon is about the confusion created by the widely differing accounts of four persons about the rape of a woman and the murder of her samurai husband and is considered a classical exposition of the existence of multiple realities as opposed to one particular truth. Although all the four persons directly involved with the crime, including the victim, the bandit rapist-murderer, the dead samurai speaking through a medium and a direct witness, recount their versions of the story, a conclusion becomes impossible as all the stories are mutually contradictory. This meant that all the four accounts were only perceptions, rather than constituting the truth.

But when truth is unreachable, perceptions become the next best thing. That is a good reason for perceptions to be managed; otherwise it can lead to unwarranted negative connotations.

A recent announcement by some Korean hospital group that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the UAE authorities under which the Korean hospitals would receive around 400 patients referred by the UAE Armed Forces seemed to come as bit of anti-climax as it was preceded by a series of news breaks which highlighted the growing potential of the UAE as an important destination for medical tourism. These included such important developments as Dubai’s introduction of three-month medical tourist visa, extendable twice up to nine consecutive months and the Dubai Healthcare City’s coordinated programmes with the private medical care providers to promote medical tourism, the launch of a proposed healthcare city in Sharjah, the addition of outstanding medical infrastructure in the form of Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi, scheduled to open next year, and RAK Hospital’s pioneering initiatives to promote the emirate as a destination for African and European patients by creating attractive medical tourism packages.

Technically, there was nothing wrong with the Korean group’s announcement, except that it was not in sync with the larger perspective of its context. Irrespective of the perceptions it may have created, the deal was just a routine part of an ongoing cooperation agreement between the two countries, signed in 2011. Further, the numbers mentioned constituted only 10 per cent of the total number of patients referred by the armed forces annually and could be mainly attributed to grounds of medical logistics.

Korean hospital circles sometimes tend to go overboard promoting their services. Some time back a Korean press release had claimed patients from UAE experiencing medical miracles in Korean hospitals and cited the case of a lady doctor from Abu Dhabi escorting a young girl having herself undergone a thyroid operation as one such extraordinary case.

With the largest number of hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), UAE is being credited with a bright future in medical tourism as a regional leader. According to most conservative market research findings, UAE’s medical tourism revenues are expected to grow by 15 percent every year from the $1.7 billion (Dh6.24 billion) it was in 2010. But some projections have put Dubai revenues alone past $10 billion in the next couple of years.

Dubai Healthcare City is in fact developing a niche for medical tourism in its business. In the next five years, DHCC is expected to develop special centres particularly appealing to medical tourists, such as oncology, genetic disorders and diabetes. DHCC hospitals are already estimated to receive over 75,000 medical tourists annually.

Even small and medium private clinics in Dubai, particularly those specialising in dentistry and ophthalmology, are reporting substantial business from visiting patients. They say hundreds of their patients fly in daily, spend a few days here and go back after successfully treating their conditions. The best part of the business is that payments are in cash and there are no hassles with insurance claims and recoveries.

In all respects, medical tourism is a high-stake area for the UAE and it is very important that the right message goes out. And for this, perception management is of critical importance.