Aster DM Healthcare’s founder and chairman Dr Azad Moopen has called for the introduction of more medical training facilities in the UAE and GCC countries to reduce the region’s reliance on expats.
Scores of Emirati medical students travel overseas each year to undertake medical degrees.
But the rampant growth of the healthcare sector in the UAE will demand more home-grown training said the Aster chairman.
Dr Moopen, whose Dubai-based company employs more than 1,000 doctors in a healthcare group with 15,000 staff, said: “One of the greatest challenges in healthcare is to get quality people.”
Speaking on the sidelines of a company event launching seven new clinics in the run-up to National Day on Wednesday, Dr Moopen said: “We have to invest in the GCC for medical education and research – more importantly education.
“We have to start more medical colleges, more nursing colleges and more colleges where locals can be trained. Now we are dependent on expats. As we go forwards, it’s an opportunity for getting better jobs as well as a requirement that systems have to be run by people here.”
Aster Medical currently operates 290 healthcare institutions including hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and medical centres in the Middle East and India.
Dr Moopen founded Aster DM Healthcare in 1987 when he opened his first outlet, Al Rafa Polyclinic, in Dubai.
The group now has 290 hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, clinics and other outlets.
It generated revenue of $600m last year – 70 to 80 per cent of which came from the GCC, with the remainder coming from operations in India.
The company already operates one medical college in India with a capacity of 450 students, and Dr Moopen is now setting up a training facility in the UAE. “We have already initiated some activities and we are looking at starting a medical college and a nursing college here – if there is an opportunity,” he said.
“There is a requirement, definitely,” he said, citing the roll-out of mandatory health insurance laws in Dubai, which he expects to spiral into the Northern Emirates.
Dr Moopen also said that Aster DM’s plans to float the company on a stock exchange, initially announced in 2014, remained “on the cards”. He said: “We’re now in the process of deciding where to do that – the Dubai market, London or India. We want to do it within one year.”
Of the seven new clinics that it is opening, six are in Dubai at Abu Hail, Al Khail, Arabian Ranches, Business Bay and Dubai Marina, as well as a specialist centre for orthopaedics and physiotherapy in Al Qusais. The seventh is being opened at Al Khalidiya in Abu Dhabi. They were inaugurated at a ceremony attended by the UAE’s Minister of Social Affairs, Maryam Al Roumi.
According to Alpen Capital, the healthcare market across the GCC countries is projected to grow at 12 per cent a year to reach $69.4 billion by 2018.
mfahy@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter
