QUESTIONSANDANSWERS
JULIAN HAWKINS
Partner In Charge of Deloitte Consulting, Middle East region
Julian Hawkins is the Partner In Charge of Deloitte Consulting for the Middle East. He has worked in the region for a number of years and has recently relocated to Dubai from the UK. He spent much of his early career consulting to the healthcare market having come from the medical equipment industry. He has a background of work in delivering large and complex transformation programmes. We spoke to him to find out more about the regulation of healthcare policies in the region and his take on healthcare development in this part of the world.
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Q: What are the main complexities of healthcare regulation in the UAE? A: It is worth making the point that the regulators (Ministry of Health, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai HealthCare City, and Health Authority Abu Dhabi) are aligned in their strategic direction to provide world- class quality service to the residents of the UAE. However, much of the complexity in the system is as a result of a
lack of harmonization and integrations amongst the various regulators. Two examples help to highlight the complexities: There are different disease classification systems in place across the regulatory environment making it more difficult to understand what is happening across the region and to aid planning and decision making There are different requirements relating to insurance schemes making it more difficult for the people in the region to know what they have to do and for providers to offer the right mix of services.
Q: Do the different authorities (MoH, DHA, HAAD) interact well or is there room for improvement? A: There is always room for improvement. One issue that is apparent in the healthcare sector in the UAE is that it is quite fragmented with
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different health authorities operating in silos and with a high degree of autonomy. This means that they mandate different regulatory policies resulting in differences in the licensing process of physicians and facilities across the authorities. For example, doctors licensed in Dubai by the DHA cannot practice in Abu Dhabi without receiving a licence from HAAD. Although a law was introduced in 2009 to establish a Federal Health Authority (FHA), which aimed at increasing interaction between the regulators in the UAE, it was abolished in 2012.
Q: What do the authorities do (or what should they do) to foster growth in the number of hospitals and healthcare facilities in the UAE? A: The UAE today has a bed density (beds/1,000 inhabitants) of 2, which is within the GCC average. However when compared to economies like Germany (8), UK (4) and USA (3), the UAE lags behind. Two sector growth models have emerged in the UAE aimed at increasing the number of hospitals and beds. The first model, adopted by the DHA, is aimed at attracting private sector investment through the establishment of healthcare free zones such as Dubai HealthCare City. The second model, developed by SEHA, is aimed at
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