King’s College Hospital agrees deal for 100-bed Dubai facility and network of clinics

Partnership between UK hospital, Al Tayer Group and Dubai investments will look to recruit up to 700 staff for new 200-bed hospital and network of clinics.

Humaid Al Qutami, the director general of the Dubai Health Authority, said that the UAE had a relationship with King's College Hospital that stretches back more than 30 years. Reem Mohammed / The National

A new branch of London’s King’s College Hospital is set to open in Dubai following a deal signed with Al Tayer Group and Dubai Investments.

Under the agreement, a new hospital containing up to 100 beds is due to be built at Dubai Hills within Mohammed bin Rashid City at a cost of US$200 million.

It will open in 2018 and focus on four main treatment areas – paediatrics, endocrinology, orthopaedics and obstetrics and gynaecology – as well as providing other acute and general medical services.

The partners have also agreed deals to open between three and four King’s College Hospital clinics on prime sites across Dubai next year and in 2017. Each clinic will have between 10 and 20 doctors on site, depending on location, and in total the partnership will be seeking to recruit up to 700 staff.

A “significant proportion” of experienced clinicians from the UK will be brought over to the hospital in Dubai, and King’s College Hospital said that all staff and services would be fully integrated with its London delivery model.

Humaid Al Qutami, the director general of the Dubai Health Authority, said that the UAE had a relationship with the hospital that stretches back more than 30 years, since the nation’s founder, Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan, provided a donation that helped to set up the hospital’s specialist liver research centre.

The first King’s College Hospital Clinic in the UAE opened in Abu Dhabi in November last year.

“The UK public and private healthcare system is considered among the top in the world,” said the UK’s health minister Alistair Burt. “Our long-standing ties with the UAE will continue to strengthen with the presence of King’s College Hospital and clinics in Dubai.”

Dubai Investments has taken a 26.75 per cent stake in the new venture. The size of stake held by King’s College Hospital or by Al Tayer Group was not disclosed.

A report published this month by Al Masah Capital stated that spending on health care across the Mena region had tripled during the 10 years to the end of 2013 to $95.8 billion, with GCC spending making up 52 per cent of that, or about $49.8bn.

It predicted that healthcare spending across Mena is likely to hit $144bn by 2020, representing growth of about 8 per cent a year.

Despite this, it argued that healthcare infrastructure in the region remained “inadequate”.

“The region would have to almost double its current hospital bed capacity by 2020 to be at par with the developed nations,” said Shailesh Dash, founder and chief executive of Al Masah Capital.

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