Volume # 05 | May, 2016

UAE Freezones Biz News Updates

Dubai goes global for medical tourism

Sheikh Hamdan also personally welcomed a “family” from the flight.

Dubai was officially launched as a global medical tourism destination on Sunday. This was done through the “Dubai Health Experience-Embrace Life” when guests from the medical community and the media were taken on board for a simulated special Dubai-bound Emirates Airlines flight at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, personally stamped an enlarged passport for all the “passengers”.

Interviewed from the “airport lounge” after The Gulf Today was issued a “boarding pass for the non-stop DXH001 flight,” the Dubai Health Authority (DHA)-Health Regulation and Dubai Medical Tourism Project director, Dr Layla Al Marzouki, said the body was tasked to oversee the healthcare and health system of the emirate projects at least 500,000 international medical tourism tourists by 2020.

The target is an increase from the 297,510 patients from around the world who sought treatments or rehabilitation from 26 hospitals in Dubai in 2015.

That was 47 per cent of the 633,000 medical tourists as the remaining 53 per cent or 335,490 were from the other emirates.

Al Marzouki answered in the affirmative when asked if all medical tourism patients are covered by medical insurance packages, adding that international medical insurance companies are based in Dubai.

She added that the DHA has come up with the world’s first one-stop shop electronic portal www.dxh.ae, to which patients and their families from around the globe have access.

It will be installed in mobile apps in 10 days.

Patients and their families can book all relevant medical facilities complete with visa applications, Emirates Airlines (EK) flights (with discounts), hotel accommodations, leisure and shopping activities, as well as travel and medical insurance policies, Marhaba Services but also be informed of the Bill of Rights and the Patient Protection Plan.

“God forbid but if there were complications within one month from the time treatments or procedures, the patients will be covered by the medical insurance,” Al Marzouki said.

She mentioned having “peace of mind” with regard to the Bill of Rights and the Patient Protection Plan.

In her speech, Al Marzouki stated the connectivity of EK to 140 countries, and the medical/healthcare personnel from 110 nationalities who could very well communicate with people from all over the world in their very own languages.

DHA-board chairman and Director General Humaid Al Qatami said the medical tourism project is “ambitious”, demonstrating the “solidarity of all stakeholders and business partners from over 25 medical entities and institutions” fully supported by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai; Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum; and Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and President of the Dubai Health Authority.

From separate interviews with Zulekha Hospitals Co-Chairperson Zanubia Shams and Prime Hospital General Manager Riaz Khan, it was gathered that among the top services offered to international medical tourism patients from Saudi Arabia, Africa and Europe are bariatric surgery, cosmetic surgery and dermatology services, and laparoscopy.

“We are competing (in the delivery of services) with South Asia and Southeast Asia,” said Shams.

Khan said, “Patients want to be slim or lose weight. They want to be beautiful.”

A video clip of the pilot and his co-pilot communicating with the control tower staff prior to the landing of DXH001 flight at the Dubai International Airport was shown.

April 11, 2016

Free Zones Of UAE

Volume # 05 | May, 2016

UAE Freezones Biz News Updates

Courtesy Gulftoday.ae

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