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Hospitals across the Gulf are running out of beds for patients and doctors to treat them. With the cost of providing healthcare set to rocket and the number of patients suffering from chronic illnesses on the rise, is the region's healthcare industry at risk of becoming terminally ill? Amy Glass reports.
Tarek malek earns $4355 a month as a general surgeon at the Abu Dhabi hospital where he has worked for the last three years. Every day his shift seems longer.
"Over the last three years the number of trauma patients coming in has at least doubled, if not tripled. The introduction of insurance means any patients can come to the hospital, and we are seeing so many more car crash victims and industrial accidents."
Unfortunately for Malek and his colleagues, while patient numbers are soaring, doctor numbers are stagnating, a crisis both government and private hospitals are struggling to contain.
Across the Gulf, clinics and hospitals are unable to cope with surging patient numbers that have created acute shortages of nurses, midwives and many specialist doctors.
The cost of hiring more and better paid staff is expected to drive up the cost of providing healthcare in the Gulf fivefold by 2025, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co. That will leave regional economies with a $60bn medical bill to pay by 2025.
Malek earns less than a quarter of the salary a surgeon with the same level of experience in the US would make.
Like thousands of other healthcare professionals across the Gulf recruited from low wage economies such as India, Pakistan and the Philippines, he has helped keep the cost of providing medical treatment low.
But that is changing fast as surging inflation across the region and increased competition between hospitals has forced salaries up. Nurses in Bahrain made history in August by threatening a three-week strike after complaining about low pay and understaffing.
"People can't find accommodation, new legislation means shared accommodation is not allowed. There are also clashes over the mandatory overtime our contracts say we are required to do because of the staff shortages," says Malek, whose name we have changed.
"It's a very serious shortage, but governments are not giving enough resources to the hospitals to recruit people. Hospitals are under pressure to prune budgets."
His claims are backed by the McKinsey report which says government-run hospitals are not prepared for the population explosion and rise in chronic diseases. Over the next two decades, demand for treatment is expected to rise by 240 percent.
The biggest rise in demand will relate to cardiovascular disease and diabetes-related ailments.
The UAE will see the highest demand, with need for hospital beds in the emirates expected to advance 160 percent by 2025.
Expats living in the country pay a fraction of what it costs the government to provide healthcare, while public care is free for nationals.
GCC governments currently provide 75 percent of all healthcare financing, but even those with the deepest of pockets may not have enough in 20 years to subsidise the cost of providing healthcare, according to McKinsey.
Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia have already passed legislation requiring employers to purchase private health insurance for expatriate employees, and Dubai is currently implementing a similar scheme.
Abu Dhabi-based Jason Light, CEO at Emirates Insurance Company, says insurance premiums are rising.
"Health insurance premiums will have to be adjusted to take account of that, because there's certainly no corresponding reduction in the amount of people claiming. Something has to give and premiums will have to rise."
The struggle to overcome significant staff shortages and wage roll increases has seen some hospital fees increase by 30 percent, insurance insiders say.
Helen Dale, an insurance broker with Dubai-based financial services firm Holburn Assets, says it makes business sense for hospitals to pass their costs along to the end user.
"If hospitals put up their fees, then the medical insurance companies they work with will need to review the arrangements they have with them. If fees go up, it will obviously affect the premiums. It's going to be passed down the line."
