Healthy Connections

Established as leading-edge operators in their home territory, two major UAE private healthcare providers are expanding their offerings to meet demand and market opportunities abroad…

NMC Health, which has operations in 17 countries, employing 2,000 doctors and 18,000 nurses and allied staff at 185 separate facilities, has acquired three private hospitals in London for £10 million ($12.9 million).  Fellow Abu Dhabi healthcare investment group UE Medical, which has a women’s and children’s hospital, an Abu Dhabi facility run in partnership with London’s NHS Moorfields Eye Hospital, six speciality centres and 14 family clinics, has also expanded to invest in Saudi Arabia.

Both expansions are partly predicated on demand for oncology and orthopaedics services: two areas where the UAE healthcare system is under-served.  “Because of the introduction of compulsory health insurance in the UAE, the government has been gathering data for the last eight to ten years, which we are using statistically to identify where the gaps in the market are,” says UE Medical chief executive Mohammed Al Shorafa.

“One of the most significant gaps in the market is oncology. The Government is still sending patients outside the UAE. Orthopaedics is another major item in Abu Dhabi.

“We have to look at these specialisations from a regional perspective now, not just from Abu Dhabi.”

NMC’s acquisition is Aspen Healthcare, which operates nine health facilities across the UK, including the Parkside, Holly Private and Highgate hospitals in London.

Founded in Abu Dhabi in the 1970s by Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, an Indian pharmacist, NMC’s recent expansion aided by UAE healthcare reforms, has helped to boost its UK-listed shares by more than 40 per cent this year to a record high, valuing the group at about £8.5 billion.

Aspen, acquired from Tenet Healthcare Corporation, offers a broad range of specialities, particularly in orthopaedics and oncology and its acquisition is aimed at giving NMC greater expertise in these two sectors, which represent about half of Aspen’s revenues.

NMC agrees with UE that both these segments remain highly underserved in the UAE, and says the Aspen deal offers the potential for patient referral to NMC’s international facilities when the required medical treatment is unavailable at home.

It says the acquisition is aimed at introducing NMC’s fertility services to Britain.

It is NMC’s growth in the UAE that has enabled it to build out its geographical footprint globally.

Prasanth Manghat, chief executive and executive director of NMC Health, says: “The government of UAE has paved the way for rapidly expanding healthcare system to meet the medical needs of Emiratis and expatriates.

“But even after the government’s major emphasis on healthcare, the surging demand and cost are keeping the healthcare concerns at the top of the development agenda of the country. 

With the well-being of its citizens identified as a top priority by the UAE government, the healthcare sector in the country is seeing an astonishing boom in both the quality and quantity of services it provides.

“NMC believes technology has the potential to exploit and reduce the inefficiencies in the current health care system and has signed a number of partnerships with leading tech firms. Technology has been leaving its fingerprints on every field, but no sector has been affected more than the healthcare industry,” adds Mr Manghat. 

“NMC Healthcare is working on innovative efforts which are focused on new products such as drugs and devices and artificial intelligence, which have the potential to change the paradigm of healthcare delivery system.

“We are also taking initiatives which can simplify various routine processes such as admission process, discharge process, medical record filing, reimbursement claim and revenue management.

“This can create process efficiencies and improve decision-making necessary to boost quality which overall improves patient satisfaction and quality of care provided.”

Healthcare technology is evolving rapidly and reaping dramatic improvements in quality of care, with advances in telehealth enabling reduced outpatient visits, redeploying doctors and nurses to provide dedicated inpatient care.

UE Medical is also a big believer in the new trend of individualised medicine, which uses patients’ genetic mapping to pinpoint potential health risks and increase preventative care.

“We believe it is going to come to Abu Dhabi,” says Mr Al Shorafa. “Stem cell technology is another exciting area.”

Abu Dhabi’s new healthcare sector has plenty of growth opportunities ahead.