Conferences sold out at world's biggest medical Congress

Total healthcare spending in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries is forecast to reach $60bn annually by 2025 - a fivefold increase over current spending, Omar Moawiyah Al Shunnar, Executive Director of the Emaar Healthcare Group, said yesterday.

He was speaking at the Global Healthcare Marketing conference - one of 18 internationally accredited conferences making up the Arab Health Congress taking place at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre until 31 January 2008.

At a parallel conference - the Healthcare Management Forum - Dinah Rowe-Roberts, Director of Healthcare Advisory Services for Pricewaterhousecoopers, said 'huge opportunities' were emerging for the private sector to help the region grapple with the challenges brought on by a rapidly growing population, projected to double by 2025.

The Congress - part of Arab Health, the Middle East's biggest gathering of medical professionals with more than 50,000 visitors - has been packed with over 6,000 delegates, making it the world's biggest multi-track medical event of its kind. Organisers, IIR Middle East, said they had been overwhelmed by demand with all conferences completely sold out.

With the fivefold increase in regional healthcare spending, the priority was not only to 'temper the costs but also to provide access to safe, quality care,' said Al Shunnar. 'The importance of public-private partnerships in healthcare is also being emphasised,' he added. The Emaar Healthcare Group has plans to develop and manage more than 100 hospitals in the Middle East and North Africa as well as the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia over the next ten years.

'New models of public-private partnerships were emerging in the GCC as individual governments reassessed their roles in healthcare as regulators, commissioners and providers,' said Rowe-Roberts, who has been involved in financing transactions with healthcare providers in the private and public sector.

'Governments need to issue clear signals of their capacity requirements in the coming years to enable a private sector response, she added, as well as design a regulatory regime and address the issue of funding.'

This was particularly important for preventive medicine, wellness programmes and disease management, for example, where there was little incentive for the private sector.

Gulf governments are designing new healthcare packages with most planning to provide them free to all nationals. However, the GCC is also requesting companies to finance basic healthcare provision through insurance for their expat workers and their dependants who account for 40% to 80% of the member-state populations.

The Arab Health Congress accredited conferences are in specialised areas of medicine, surgery and healthcare management with over 400 internationally respected speakers. The conferences are accredited by the American Academy of Continuing Medical Education (AACME), recognised in over 96 countries.

The Congress is one of only a handful of events in the world to receive the Gold Seal of Accreditations from the AACME and delegates receive an accreditation certificate that can be used towards maintaining their annual quota of continuing medical education credits, now necessary to renew medical practicing licences in the UAE and many other countries.

'The Arab Health conferences meet rigorous international standards in continuing medical education and we have been overwhelmed by demand by health professionals from all over the region and beyond,' said Simon Page, Group Director of Life Sciences at IIR Middle East.

Supported by the UAE Ministry of Health, the Health Authority Abu Dhabi and the Dubai Health Authority, the 2008 Arab Health Exhibition showcases products and services from more than 2,200 exhibitors representing over 65 countries. Leading sponsor of Arab Health is Dubai Healthcare City and main corporate sponsor is UAE development company Emaar's healthcare division.