Health Care Exported?

Screen shot of the Front Page of Gulf News (17 Sep, 2007)

The Gulf News front page yesterday (18 Sep 2007) carried a story "Destination Thailand" which stated that 70,000 UAE nationals went to Thailand last year for treatment because they distrust the health care available in the UAE.

70,000 Emiratis is no laughing figure considering that according to last year's census by the UAE Government the total population of the UAE was at 824,921. In short almost 10% of the local population went to Thailand last year for treatment. A simple reason stated was distrust of the current health care system in UAE.

It is staggering to imagine what kind of numbers would be generated if Emiratis traveling to other countries for treatment such as USA, Canada, India, France, Australia were included in that percentage.

This article is an eye opener and only warrants the need for similar articles. Yet, the article stops short of pointing fingers on specific reasons or departments other than mentioning general issues such as cost inhibitions and lack of care and so on. An excerpt of the article is pasted below with a link to the complete article for further reading.

"Most of the patients are either sponsored by government agencies, including the Ministry of Health, the Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services (Dohms), Dubai Police, or are military or private patients.Some travel to Thailand only for medical treatment, while others decide to include a medical check-up in their holiday plans."

Salim Al Za'abi, UAE ambassador to Thailand, told Gulf News distrust and dissatisfaction in the UAE's medical services are recurrent themes among Emirati patients.

Some feel the medical treatment and care they get in the UAE are not worth the money they pay, some feel the service and care are too slow and insufficient, while others believe that many doctors lack the medical expertise and did not care enough about their patients. Some others have gone to Thailand to correct medical mistakes that occurred in the UAE.

"Some people have complained that hospitals in the UAE cannot discover cancer and other serious illnesses. Some have complained that doctors in the UAE did no investigation and that there are poor physical therapy facilities," he said, adding that the medical sector is the UAE has room for improvement.

Government hospitals don't provide the same services as in Thailand and private hospitals are too expensive."

"Patients prefer treatment abroad" ~ Gulf News, 18 Sep, 2007