Hospitals acting as a ‘stepping stone’ for expatriate doctors

Manama: High dependence on expatriate doctors who consider the GCC healthcare facilities as a stepping-stone to gain experience and then seek careers in the West is actually hindering the growth of healthcare system in the GCC, says Alpen Capital in its report.

This, according to the report, coupled with few other factors including limited super-specialized care in areas such as oncology and cardiology is driving outbound medical tourism. Another grave concern is regarding the dearth of local talent to meet the requirement at healthcare centers.

Worsening this scenario further is the volatility prevailing in the finance market and risk aversion that are crippling the fund raising capability of companies to finance their healthcare projects. Governments on the other hand are dogged by budgetary constraints amid falling oil prices.

Medical tourism

Interestingly, amid all these negative factors, the growing demand for healthcare is however acting as a boost to Medical Tourism in GCC.

Sensing the opportunity, the government as well as private players have injected multi-billion dollars into the sector to construct large and specialized healthcare facilities.

“We see this trend strengthening as governments and private companies work with each other to benefit from the opportunities presented by the GCC Healthcare sector,” says Sanjay Vig, Managing Director, Alpen Capital (ME) Limited

“They are also investing heavily in technological advancements as well as rolling out mandatory health insurance schemes in all the countries to further accelerate the growth of the healthcare sector,” says Sameena Ahmad, Managing Director, Alpen Capital (ME) Limited.

350 hospital projects

The report says that GCC region has nearly 350 hospital projects under various stages of development. There are several initiatives within the GCC healthcare sector that are focused on medical tourism which are likely to not only attract patients from across the world but also reduce the outbound visits of citizens for specialised treatment thereby aiding the growth of the healthcare sector in the region.

Rapidly growing population and a shift in age-group distribution are among the key factors driving the GCC governments to improve the healthcare infrastructure as well as standards of care, explains the report.