King's College Hospital London in the UAE opens Marina Medical Centre

Dubai, 3rd September, 2018:   King’s College Hospital London in the UAE (KCH) officially opened the doors of its Marina Medical Centre this morning, the first facility with British NHS standards to be located in Dubai Marina. Alongside the new home for KCH, the newly appointed CEO, Christian Schuhmacher, announced KCH’s plans on providing international standards of care and focussing on primary healthcare as frontline care.

 

The centre was inaugurated by His Excellency Humaid Al Qutami, Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority and H.E. Ahmed H. Al Tayer, Chairman of King’s College Hospital London in the UAE in presence of high-level officials.

 

Al Qutami highlighted that the growth of the healthcare sector in Dubai is driven by a population rise and an increase in private health infrastructure. 

He congratulated the management at KCH and highlighted that Dubai is an attractive location for health investment. 

 

Al Qutami said that investment in the private health sector has witnessed sustained growth and that DHA recently launched a health investment strategy 2017-2020, with an aim to promote Dubai as a viable and competitive hub for need-based investment in healthcare. The strategy aims to guide and support investors to build sustainable public-private partnership models in healthcare in Dubai.

 

Al Qutami said that the DHA is keen to support private sector investment and such reputed healthcare providers with decades of experience and expertise in the medical sector, which help provide the population in Dubai with high-quality health services.

 

Christian Schuhmacher brings with him over 18 years’ experience in hospital governance, public affairs and business development, four years based locally and a further 14 years internationally. Speaking at the Marina Medical Centre opening ceremony, Schuhmacher stated, “The culture of King’s is to provide the best of British healthcare by complying to UK evidence-based care. Our utilisation results over the past year of other KCH facilities in the UAE not only demonstrate KCH’s unwavering commitment to healthcare in the UAE but also show the real progress we are making in delivering evidence-based healthcare. We constantly strive to provide the most cost-effective and healthiest treatment options for our patients.”   

 

The findings from the one-year review of other KCH facilities in Dubai showed that a Family Medicine Consultant rather than a Specialist treated 30 per cent of patients at KCH in the UAE. “This is in line with our concept of primary care being the first line of treatment,” said Schuhmacher “We are fervent advocates of evidence-based healthcare, and are proud to bring this ethos of care to the community in Dubai Marina.”

 

H.E. Ahmed H. Al Tayer, Chairman of King’s College Hospital London in the UAE added, “By bringing in this new Centre to Dubai Marina, we are one step closer to helping the UAE achieve a world-class healthcare system. This is just the start for KCH as we continue our expansion with our upcoming 100-bed hospital in Dubai Hills that will provide integrated pathways into King’s in London. For example, clinical services like Foetal Medicine will draw on experience from the 

Institute of Foetal Medicine in London.”

 

Other senior members that were present at the inauguration included Mr. Ian Smith, Chairman of King’s College Hospital London (NHS Trust); and Mr. Mohammed Al Raqbani, General Manager of Dubai Investments Industries. 

 

The new facility, located in The Residences at Marina Gate I, in the heart of Dubai Marina, brings KCH’s UAE footprint to a total of three Medical Centres; the first being the flagship clinic in Abu Dhabi, and the one-year-old Medical Centre in Jumeirah. The Marina Medical Centre specialises in Family Medicine, Paediatrics, Paediatric Allergy, Paediatric Hepatology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Foetal Medicine, Plastic Surgery, ENT as well as Dentistry, and will feed alongside the other clinics into the upcoming hospital, set to open in January 2019. All KCH medical centres are fully integrated 365 days a year with King’s College Hospital in London.