The health-care industry in Abu Dhabi has witnessed rapid growth in the past few years fuelled by an increase in population, rising health awareness and access to quality care, high incidence of lifestyle-related diseases, an ageing population and a sharp spurt in per capita health-care expenditure.
According to the Health Authority — Abu Dhabi (HAAD), 2,000 additional doctors and more than 5,000 nurses will be required in 2022. HAAD also points out that in 2021, demand for inpatient services may require more than 1,300 additional beds (currently there are 3,659), based on the expected improved occupancy rate of 70 per cent. However, with 2,159 hospital beds under construction, the sector is poised to experience a significant expansion over the next few years.
Growth in demand for health-care services associated with the prevention and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, respiratory conditions, emergency medicine and neuropsychiatric conditions is expected to be particularly high.
To manage the present and future health-care needs, the capital’s health-care delivery system is expanding its coverage and spending in both the public and private sectors.
Jad Bitar, Partner at global management consulting firm Booz & Company, says, “The health-care sector will continue to grow in the UAE and especially in Abu Dhabi as we expect expenditure to double in the next few years. Medical inflation will be the key concern in the short term, growing at the rate of 5-10 per cent annually.”
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular ailments, diabetes and cancer will have a considerable impact on the health-care sector in Abu Dhabi. “NCDs will greatly affect the health-care system not only in terms of consumption and costs but also with regard to the type of services and the importance of technology and information. We expect to see improved access to services, efforts towards cost containment, more private sector participation, new payment mechanisms and new care provision models,” says Bitar.
HAAD invests significantly to deliver innovative solutions and address local medical needs. It started a pioneering programme Weqaya, a national screening initiative, which identifies cardiovascular risk factors in UAE nationals living in the emirate and assists in improving their health status. Individuals are eligible for screening every three years. Weqaya has already had multiple successes. The first round of screening covered 94 per cent of Abu Dhabi nationals, and discovered 11,000 diabetes, 12,000 hypercholesterolaemia, 27,000 hypertension, and 57,000 dyslipidaemia (abnormal cholesterol) cases, according to a Booz & Co report.
Labour shortages
The shortage of medical personnel and rising costs are key challenges affecting the health-care system. Abu Dhabi, like elsewhere in the Gulf, is heavily dependent on expatriates to fill nursing and physicians’ positions. Dr Charles Stanford, CEO, Burjeel Hospital, a leading health-care service provider, says, “Health care is and will always be a challenge. The challenges of developing a health-care system in Abu Dhabi are similar to those faced in the US, UK and other developed countries. We have issues related to health financing and workforce, with the additional unique feature of a large expatriate population leading to differences in financing and disease distribution.”
He adds, “We work in a well-regulated community that demands quality. Skilled professionals are in demand across the world and although the scenario [in Abu Dhabi] is improving, delays in acquiring licences for health-care personnel still concern the sector, which also gives the wrong message to potential candidates.”
Private sector participation in the capital’s health-care industry has increased in the past few years and Mubadala Healthcare has played an instrumental role in creating a thriving sector by prioritising the region’s pressing health-care needs. Suhail Al Ansari, Executive Director, Mubadala Healthcare, says, “Mubadala Healthcare, a business unit of Mubadala Development Company, seeks to spur the economic diversification of Abu Dhabi by catalysing the development of a robust health-care sector in the emirate.
“We specifically identify capacity gaps and needs in critical services and infrastructure and then strategically invest in developing state-of-the-art facilities and forming partnerships with leading international medical institutions to address those gaps and needs,” he says.
These collaborations help transfer clinical expertise and provide world-class specialist care that many patients would historically seek outside the UAE. “This not only reduces the need for > patients to travel abroad to receive care, it contributes to the creation of a sustainable and robust UAE-based health-care industry, capable of delivering specialised care for patients today and in the future,” says Al Ansari.
Imperial College London Diabetes Centres in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, operated in partnership with the UK’s Imperial College London, help Mubadala address the prevalence of diabetes in the UAE through treatment, research and prevention. Healthpoint, a fully integrated, primary care and multi-speciality hospital at Zayed Sports City, is managed by Germany’s Asklepios, one of Europe’s leading hospital operators.
International partners
“We also work with US-based Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, replicating its model of care in order to deliver advanced cardiovascular, neurological, digestive, eye and respiratory care to patients within the emirate. We are also proud of our partnership with Johns Hopkins Medicine International, which allows us to practise advanced diagnostics and imaging in Al Ain at the Tawam Molecular Imaging Centre. These facilities provide a range of complementary services that work to address all aspects of health care in the emirate, from diagnosis to rehabilitation, from primary to complex care,” says Al Ansari.
The Abu Dhabi Knee & Sports Medicine Centre and Wooridul Spine Centre have already made a significant impact in the emirate. Established by Mubadala Healthcare in 2006, the Abu Dhabi Knee & Sports Medicine Centre specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal diseases and injuries as well as knee and joint orthopaedic conditions. More than 5,500 surgeries are performed at the centre annually.
Wooridul Spine Centre, part of Healthpoint, is a specialist spine care facility dedicated to spinal injuries and chronic back pain, with a speciality in minimally invasive treatment techniques. Dr Ihsan Al Marzouqi, Board Member, Healthpoint, says, “In 2012, it performed the first percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy procedure on a patient in the UAE, a minimally invasive spine surgery used to treat cervical disc herniation diseases, which was previously unavailable in the country.”
The development of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi at Al Maryah Island is expected to be a game changer. The hospital, which is more of a medical campus, will be a 364-bed (expandable to 490 beds) facility, with five clinical floors, three diagnostic and treatment levels and 13 floors of critical and acute inpatient units.
Dr Marc Harrison, CEO, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, says, Mubadala Healthcare chose to collaborate with Cleveland Clinic because of its expertise, which aligns with the region’s most pressing health concerns. “By bringing Cleveland Clinic to Abu Dhabi, patients will have access to our five centres of excellence, which deal with heart and vascular, neurological, digestive disease, eye and respiratory and critical care.,” he says.
“Our group practice model of care, a unique approach to health care, modelled after Cleveland Clinic, is a collaborative, team-based approach to patient care, where physicians work as an integrated team around a particular disease area or medical condition. A first in the region, this model means that our services are organised around the patient rather than the physicians,” Dr Harrison adds.
