The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has pledged to step up its efforts to boost health and medical tourism in the region in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, a high-level official there has said.
Mohamed Al Mheiri, director of health tourism Department at the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), said the “successful” way that the UAE has dealt with the pandemic means that it is well-placed to offer high quality medical care in a safe environment.
Al Mheiri said that Dubai had maintained its advanced position as the top Arab destination for medical tourism for the second year in a row, based on the “International Medical Tourism Index” recently issued by the International Health Care Research Center.
He added that the UAE has ranked number one in the Middle East region and 14th globally in terms of COVID-19 handling, according to a survey released by UK’s Global Soft Power Index. The survey ranked 105 countries in the world based on the assessment of tens of thousands of people.
A new initiative recently extended by DHA means that patients with disorders across seven specialities can get a free second medical opinion or diagnosis from doctors in Dubai.
In 2019 Dubai saw the number of health tourists rise by 4% compared to 2018, with a total of 350,118 health tourists, while their total expenditure on healthcare services was approximately AED727m.