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Dubai’s first medical tourism package for overseas patients, which will include treatment for wellness and fitness-related health issues, will be launched in September this year.
The package includes executive full body checkup and will cover treatment costs, visa, accommodation as well recreational activities for families who accompany the patient, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced on Monday.
A senior official said all hospitals will be required to chalk out comprehensive medical tourism packages. The hospitals and health facilities interested in being part of this initiative will need to fill out a detailed medical tourism eligibility form and submit all documents to the DHA’s Dubai Medical Tourism department.
“The hospitals will then be given a platinum, gold or silver membership based on their score and evaluation of their documents,” said Dr Ramadan Ibrahim, Director of Medical Regulation and Director of the Medical Tourism Programme. “The committee will look into detailed aspects of every health facility. For example, they need to provide us details of the specialties they would like to promote, the details of the doctors who provide those specialties, the number of procedures they have conducted, etc.”
“All this information will be re-verified with the DHA health regulation office as part of the secondary verification check. In addition to medical facilities, we will also evaluate hospitals on the basis of the comfort and ease they provide to patients. This includes checking whether they have translators (and) chauffeur services ... which will all be part of the medical tourism package. At the end of the day, it’s about providing ... excellence in medical service,” he added.
Dr Ibrahim said all relevant stakeholders including immigration, the aviation industry, the hospitality sector and public and private hospitals will work together to ensure medical tourists receive both excellent treatment as well as world-class hospitality.
The package details were discussed at a meeting with private sector hospitals recently. The meeting also discussed the medical tourism strategy and the steps to implement it with the private sector.
The meeting discussed key focus areas of treatment for medical tourism and the introduction of medical tourism packages to provide medical tourists and their families with excellent healthcare, recreational and touristic facilities — all under one package.
Essa Al Maidoor, Director-General of the DHA, said: “Dubai is the world’s leading destination for tourism and leisure and since Dubai offers excellent healthcare facilities, medical tourism is an extension of the hospitality that Dubai is synonymous with.
“Ensuring that all private players work hand-in-hand with us and are aligned with the overall medical tourism strategy which will ensure smooth functioning of ... (the) health sector and will benefit both medical tourists as well as the healthcare providers.”
The Dubai Medical Tourism website will also be launched by the last quarter of 2014.
Dubai hopes to attract 500,000 medical tourists by 2020 under the medical tourism strategy.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com
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