Dubai: London’s King’s College Hospital (KCH) will open its first full-fledged branch outside the UK in Dubai in 2018, it was announced on the sidelines of the Arab Health Exhibition and Congress on Tuesday.
The announcement comes just over a year after the KCH, in partnership with Al Tayer Group, opened its first clinic in Abu Dhabi, and more facilities are set to open in Dubai by early next year.
Established in 1840, the KCH is one of the oldest medical institutions in the UK.
The 100-bed multi-speciality facility will be located at Dubai Hills, in the heart of Mohammad Bin Rashid City.
Being built at a cost of $200 million (Dh734 million), the hospital is expected to bring British expertise and quality to the health-care sector in the UAE.
“King’s College Hospital is a pioneer in the field of medicine and we have a legacy of more than 150 years of health-care services. We will be combining the best of UK’s health care with the best of Dubai’s facilities. We will be providing exactly the same quality of services that we have in the UK,” said Simon Taylor, director of Commercial Development, KCH.
He added that around 30 per cent of the staff will be from the UK, while the rest of the workforce will be recruited locally.
“We will bring in our doctors and other experts from our facilities in the UK but we will also recruit staff locally and train them to our standards. We will be bringing in all our systems and put in place our standards, so that people won’t have to travel far to get the best of health care,” he added.
KHC is likely to bring in around 150 doctors and more than 500 nurses to the UAE across its various facilities, with specialisation in obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, orthopaedics and endocrinology.
Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, director of Health Regulation and the Dubai Medical Tourism Project at Dubai Health Authority, hailed the move as a major boost to Dubai’s medical tourism.
“King’s College Hospital will be a great addition to the health-care facilities in Dubai. We are encouraging investment in the health-care sector and to have the best in the industry come to Dubai will be a great boost to medical tourism. We will be glad to provide all the support we can in establishing more such facilities as there is a great demand for specialised health-care services in Dubai,” said Al Marzouqi, speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of the congress.
Dubai currently has 30 hospitals, 2,700 health-care facilities and 33,000 health-care professionals. However, Al Marzouqi said that with the growing demand, the facilities and workforce will have to more than double by the year 2020.
“Dubai had 435,000 medical tourists last year and the number is expected to grow drastically over the next few years. There is also a phenomenal growth of medical facilities in Dubai with one facility opening every 36 hours,” she added.
Ahmad Al Tayer, Chairman of KHC Dubai, said: “The world class multi-speciality hospital will contribute to the UAE strategy and vision of becoming a medical tourism destination.”
