Doing it for the kids

Rumour has it that Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) is nearing completion of a feasibility study to assess the relative merits of a specialist paediatric hospital on its premises.

The news itself is quite unremarkable, considering DHCC's ambition to function as a "world class state-of-the-art centre of excellence for all medical services".

If DHCC wants to get close to world class, paediatrics has to be a cornerstone of its development - especially in a region that places such an emphasis on family.

Yet the study serves as a stark reminder of how underserved the United Arab Emirates (UAE) currently is for paediatric care - if DHCC go ahead with its plans, their facility would be the first of its kind for the Gulf nation.

As with many specialties, the UAE is fighting against a culture where a sick child is as likely to result in a trip to the airport as the hospital. As long as parents believe that best-practice paediatrics can only be found overseas, local projects will remain unfeasible.

After all, when it comes to a child's health, no parent wants to feel that getting a good rate is more important than getting the right diagnosis. Unfortunately for the UAE (and other developing healthcare economies), a lack of specialist care is a problem that perpetuates itself: without a secure client base, expert staff will be difficult to attract and projects will simply appear too risky to serious investors.

Just because the UAE does not have a specialist paediatric hospital does not make the decision to build one a no-brainer. Nevertheless, if ventures such as DHCC are serious about addressing "all medical services", this is the sort of equation it will have to learn to solve.

Healthcare provision in the UAE might be maturing at a rapid rate, but when it comes to paediatrics it still has a lot of growing up to do.

Vernon Baxter is the assistant editor of Medical Times Middle East.

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