INVESTMENT GCC HEALTHCARE
referrals to private hospitals. These factors have placed added pressure on the healthcare highest in the world for
diabetes prevalence, followed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The Saudi Diabetes and Endocrine Association (SEDA) suggests that over 70% of the Saudi population is alarmingly obese. KSA and the UAE make up the two largest populations in the GCC.
THE dEmAnd foR HEALTHCARE inCREAsEs As the incidences of lifestyle diseases increase, these populations, leveraged by increased prosperity, will demand a greater quality of healthcare. Demand growth in this segment will act as an incentive for private investors to establish multi-disciplinary hospitals and specialised centres for complex diseases. Such investment will increase competitiveness and improve the quality of services. Private hospitals are generally preferred due to: Excessive queues at public facilities Capacity saturation within public care (overburdened emergency rooms and hospital beds) Lack of specialised treatment and facilities in rural areas Higher efficiency in private care. Limited opening hours of government hospitals has also been cited as a reason for
market and can be met by more private investment. The existing healthcare infrastructure in
the MENA region is currently insufficient. For example, the average hospital count per 10,000 people here is 21.6 beds, much lower than developed economies such as the UK (33.8) and the US (31.0). It is estimated that that the region lacks about 200,000 hospital beds currently and this has to be addressed immediately or it will increase. The present system has around 18 qualified physicians per 10,000 people compared to 27 each in the UK and the US, indicating a shortage of about 179,000 specialists. The region also lacks medical professionals such as dentists, nurses and midwives. According to WHO, in terms of trained medical staff per 10,000 people in 2010, the MENA region had 3.5 dentistry personnel and 28.4 nurses and midwives, which is nearly 79% and 71% lower, respectively, compared to the US. It is ironical that in this part of the world there are more graduates in humanities than in science and engineering, as a result of which it has fewer numbers of qualified physicians, nurses and midwives, and dentistry personnel. An active policy initiative aimed at these shortcomings will not only supply more qualified physicians and medicine practitioners but at the same time address another key regional problem: job creation.
IN SHORT
■The MENA region spends 4.3% of its GDP on healthcare or US$315 per person. This is a third of what USA spends on healthcare
■The healthcare structure in the region is not up to par in comparison to the high living standards in MENA countries
■ Complications from non- communicable diseases cause huge financial and social burden on an already over-stretched healthcare system in the region
Hospital Build Issue 4 2011
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