VPS Healthcare has its eye on a slice of the luxury medical tourism market following the opening of a premium facility in the capital.
The US$12.5 million Tajmeel centre at Aldar’s headquarters aims to target patients from the Arabian Gulf, Africa and China. It has 15 doctors and can handle 150 patients a day.
It will offer dental treatment and oculoplasty – cosmetic, corrective, and reconstructive surgery of the eye.
Segmenting health care is a trend that is picking up with the UAE’s healthcare providers, such as VPS, which operates the luxury Burjeel, and midrange LLH and Lifecare hospitals, and Dubai’s Aster DM Healthcare, with its high-end Medcare hospitals and midrange Aster hospitals.
With segmentation, “people know what service line to expect and it improves efficiency, and for insurance companies it is interesting because they don’t want a higher factor for a lower premium, they have the advantage of sending the patients to the right level of hospitals,” said Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, the managing director of Abu Dhabi VPS.
“And when we are looking at medical tourism we have different people who can afford different levels of service and payment systems.”
Healthcare expenses are on the rise in the country and medical inflation is forecast to touch 3.4 per cent by 2020, up from 2.3 per cent in 2014, according to the investment bank Alpen Capital.
The private sector ran 70 per cent of the 115 hospitals in the UAE as of 2014.
Healthcare spending in the UAE is expected to touch $19.5 billion in 2020, up from $10.7bn last year, as private players are expected to expand their reach.
VPS is working with the property developer Aldar on two other projects – a clinic at its Al Bandar and Al Muneera communities at Al Raha Beach that is scheduled to open in two weeks, and a day surgery centre on Al Reem island that is expected to open in about 14 months.
The group will also add 35 to 40 critical-care beds to their existing 200 with the opening of a critical care and trauma hospital near Dalma Mall that is expected in 18 months.
VPS is building a hospital in Al Ain due to open in April and another in the city next year. Its oncology centre in Mohammed bin Zayed City is expected in 18 months. The group runs 16 hospitals under the Burjeel, LLH, Lifecare and Medeor brands.
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