Experts discuss role of UAE’s insurance firms

Dubai / Emirates Business

The United Arab Emirates witnessed a surge in specialised long-term care providers over recent years, demonstrating how evolved the healthcare sector has become. The concept of long-term care not only brings significant business opportunities and fruitful ventures, but it also highlights the role that insurance companies play in long term care in the UAE and the region.
As a result of the growing population and emphasis on healthcare in the GCC region, and the UAE, regulators were able to focus on highly demanded specialised healthcare services, including long term care and post-acute rehabilitation.
According to Michael Davis, CEO of ProVita International Medical Centres, “ProVita International Medical Centre aims to create the long-term care market in the UAE, and is the foremost provider of acute, ventilated care in the region. There is a high demand for long term care in the region and many chronically ill patients willing to return to be treated in the GCC. We believe that the addition of our 26-bed unit in the NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City A will broaden the categories of chronic patients we care for, and allow us to enhance the quality of life of long-term care patients whose conditions do not allow them to be too far from an acute care hospital.”
Population growth, unhealthy lifestyles, genetic predisposition, and other epidemiological factors all tie in with the rise in the rates of chronic diseases. The average age of stroke in the UAE is 47, which is alarmingly earlier than other parts of the world, which leads to a much higher level of demand for post-stroke rehabilitation services, especially considering the current advances in stroke care and response times that have been continuing over the last five years in the country.