Dubai Health Authority holds meeting with Dubai medical tourism club members

DHA DG distributes certificates to members of medical tourism club.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 23, 2015:  Twenty-four members of the Dubai medical tourism club met today to discuss important aspects of the Dubai medical tourism initiative and ways to promote develop and sustain medical tourism in Dubai.

The meeting was chaired by His Excellency Engineer Essa Al Maidoor, Director General of the Dubai Health Authority.

Al Maidoor, said: “The idea behind the medical tourism club is to brainstorm and to receive feedback and suggestions from key industry experts so that the Authority and the private sector can work together to ensure we utilize all our resources to promote medical tourism in Dubai. The goals of the medical tourism club include facilitating the Dubai medical tourism program, promoting medical tourism services in Dubai and to collectively contribute to the Dubai medical tourism strategy by identifying new markets and services.

“The club aims to fulfil Dubai’s vision of being the top medical tourism destination in the region, among the top ten medical tourism destinations in the world and the fastest growing medical tourism destination globally. All healthcare facilities that actively promote, facilitate and participate in medical tourism in Dubai are eligible to apply to become a member of the Medical Tourism Club.”

Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, director of the DHA health regulation department and director of the Dubai medical tourism initiative, said: “There is an eligibility criterion for membership. While facility, physician and clinical requirements are essential to ensure quality and capability of health facilities; key hospitality requirements are needed to ensure medical tourists and their family members are comfortable.”

Al Marzouqi said: “Requirements include faculty information such as international accreditation and certifications, number of years in service in this region, details of subsidiaries and branches; number of beds, physicians and nurses; physician and nurse ratio etc.”

Al Marzouqi added that the Authority also takes into consideration details of physicians working at the facility.  “This includes number of full-time physicians offering medical tourism services, international certifications and training, years of work experience, number of visiting physicians, number of procedures performed per specialty, etc. We take into consideration clinical indicators such as in-patient mortality, number of critical care services, patient satisfaction rate.

We also look into hospitality services offered by the facility such as transportation services for medical tourists and family members, translators, air-ticket and hotel stay assistance, patient and family care.”

Al Marzouqi said that of the 24 registered members, 15 are from hospitals, two are from day-care surgery centres and seven belong to multi-specialty clinics.

At the end of the meeting, Al Maidoor distributed certificates to the members of the club. The members will meet on a monthly basis to discuss all aspects of promoting medical tourism in Dubai.