Dubai Reveals Master Plan For 500,000 Medical Tourists A Year

Dubai will build 22 hospitals as part of plans to attract 500,000 medical tourists a year and boost its economy by up to Dh2.6 billion by 2020. Thousands of staff will be hired and new visas offered as part of the emirate’s plan to become a major centre for medical tourism by the time it hosts Expo 2020.

“Our target is to attract 500,000 people only for medical tourism by 2020,” said Essa Al Maidoor, director general of the DHA, or Dubai Health Authority. “The medical tourism strategy has been designed over two phases. The first one has been chalked out until 2016 and the second until 2020.”

The authority said 18 private and four public hospitals would be built in the next few years, with the number of private-sector healthcare staff expected to increase by more than 3,800. Private hospitals will target patients from the Commonwealth of Independent States, including Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and in South Asia and Arabian Gulf nations...