How do you make medical tourism better? Make sure that everyone feels at home
dubai — The UAE is witnessing a boom in medical tourism, and a key focus on not only the clinical requirements but also hospitality requirements are needed to ensure medical tourists and their family members are comfortable, noted the 3rd Annual Health & Medical Tourism Conference held in Dubai on Thursday.
Organised by the Gulf Medical University (GMU) in association with Thumbay Medical Tourism, the conference was a get-together of industry experts from healthcare, travel and medical education sectors, to discuss the latest trends and developments in medical tourism and to explore ways to capitalize on the UAE’s growing stature as a top medical tourism hub. The theme of the conference this year was “Health & Medical Tourism – Brand UAE; Nurturing Partnerships, Exploring Opportunities.”
Presided by Thumbay Moideen, Founder president of Thumbay Group, the conference welcomed Dr Amin Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for Medical Practice and License Sector, Ministry of Health – UAE as the chief guest. The thought-leadership conference was also attended by government officials, medical tourism experts and representatives from the embassies of Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chad, Djibouti, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
Speaking on the sidelines of the potential growth in the medical tourism sector, Amin Al Amiri said, “The UAE is looking to double or triple the number of medical tourists in the coming five years. To ensure best-practices, we are cautiously introducing patented medicines approved by USFDA (the US Food and Drug Administration and other agencies] to ensure highest quality care and medicines are provided, and draw patients from across the globe to UAE as medical tourists and get their treatment in the emirates.” The conference also noted that technology would lead the way in future for Medical Tourism. The country’s strategic geographic location at the heart of Asia and Africa, connecting the east to the west – along with its plethora of low-cost flights, affordable accommodation, and attractive neighboring tourist cities – will be enough to tip the increasingly competitive battle for medical tourism in UAE’s favour, experts said.
Moideen said: “Domestic medical tourism has been growing significantly, and with the ease of information accessible on the internet, we’ve seen an increased element of choice. Moreover, the city’s growing popularity of being conducive to a family experience for those coming in for healthcare has been a big contributing factor. We understand that people have strong images of UAE as a tourism hub, but we are here to say that we now have world-class medical facilities too.”
Linda Abdullah Al Ali, head of Medical Tourism Office, Health Regulation Department, DHA said that the country was well-equipped to serve its increasing numbers of medical tourists, with Dubai alone expected to see more than 500,000 medical tourists by 2020.