UAE’s medical tourism prospects did get a lift from its COVID-19 handling

UAE’s medical tourism prospects did get a lift from its COVID-19 handling

I moved to the UAE to set up a medical tourism department in a leading private hospital eight years ago. Those days, the UAE was a country that referred its citizens abroad for treatment and also a destination that wanted to attract international patients. It is worth reflecting on how the UAE has evolved from an outbound referral market to one of the leading destinations attracting medical tourists. In the last decade, the UAE started making and attracting investment in healthcare, research, and medical education, as well as creating favorable conditions for healthcare professionals to settle in the country. The transition from being a referral source had begun long before the pandemic restricted international travel. The Dubai Health Authority reported that the total number of treatment cases abroad decreased 74.8 per cent in five years, from 2,913 patients in 2015 to 733 patients in 2019. During the pandemic, major destinations closed their doors to patients from around the world, changing the outlook for the UAE citizens considering treatment abroad. Factors leading to declining outflow of UAE patients Temporary suspension of government-sponsored programme for treatment abroad: With the pandemic, medical tourism came to a complete halt as leading destinations struggled to