Emaar Healthcare Expands Abroad

Emaar Healthcare is considering opening medical centres in Egypt and Syria as it looks to expand abroad, says Omar al Shunnar, the chief executive.

Investing in health care has become a major policy driver in the GCC as countries struggle to cope with ageing populations and the rise of the incidence of diseases related to obesity, such as diabetes.

The Ministry of Finance last month announced that 6.4 per cent of its Dh43.6 billion budget for next year will be spent on health.

Analysts expect that total healthcare spending in the GCC will more than quadruple from US$11.9bn (Dh43.7bn) this year to $57.3bn in 2025.

As well as planning a hospital in Dubai, Emaar Healthcare – a subsidiary of Emaar Properties – is also evaluating plans to build medical facilities near some of its parent’s community developments in Egypt and Syria, said Mr al Shunnar.

Emaar is developing the $500m Eighth Gate project in Damascus through its Syrian subsidiary and has several developments throughout Cairo under its Egyptian unit. Emaar is the largest Arab property developer by market value.

Emaar Healthcare also plans to open medical facilities at Dubai’s Emirates Meadows next month and at the Arabian Ranches housing development early next year, in addition to its flagship Dubai Mall facility.

“This medical centre and these two upcoming facilities are, at least for the UAE, the cornerstones of a health system. When you develop any health system, you need clinics, you need medical centres and of course, you need hospitals, which is coming next,” Mr al Shunnar said.

Although he declined to specify how much it cost to build the Dubai Mall medical facility, or comment on how much would be spent outside the UAE, Emaar Healthcare’s parent company has said the firm had a capital budget of Dh18.35bn over the next 10 years to develop projects throughout the region and on the Indian subcontinent.

“It is a matter of time before we come up with our next facility. As any responsible company, it has to look at its financial obligations and it has to look at how to conduct its business in order to weather the financial storm,” Mr al Shunnar said.

Since it opened in the Dubai Mall last September, Mr al Shunnar said that daily patient traffic had been “steady” and the centre had surpassed internal revenue benchmarks.

He said 27 of the roughly 50 doctors the facility had planned for were already working at the centre, with the remainder expected to arrive within several months.

Having a company of the scale of Emaar push the development of premier healthcare services is a positive step to improving health in the region, said Ruch de Silva, the healthcare consulting analyst for Datamonitor MENA.

“If a developer like Emaar ties in developing basic healthcare facilities into their infrastructure projects, whether they are commercial or residential, it would be highly beneficial to the population here,” Mr de Silva said.