Lack of Emirati doctors is ‘worrying problem’, Arab Health Congress told

Emiratis do not see health care as an attractive career choice, while expatriates are transitory resulting in a shortage of doctors in the UAE, says Ryder Smith, head of Middle East health at PricewaterhouseCoopersat the Arab Health Congress.

DUBAI // The need for Emiratis in the healthcare profession has become urgent as demand soars for medical services, experts warn.

Health leaders also called for better postgraduate medical education to encourage homegrown talent, and for more doctors to be trained locally to reduce a high turnover of expatriate workers.

And they say the profession must be given a more prestigious image to encourage young nationals into the sector and away from industries such as oil and gas.

“I’m not sure as a region we really appreciate the size of the problem,” Ryder Smith, head of Middle East health at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said on Tuesday.

“We need to look at this, at how we are going to, as a region, significantly change both the number and the capacity of nationals and the expatriate population in the sector.”

Emiratis do not see health care as an attractive career choice, while expatriates are transitory, Mr Smith said.

Both factors are worrying after a recent report by the advisory McKinsey and Company predicted overall demand for health care in the GCC will increase by 240 per cent in the next 20 years.

“The main thing we need is to continue to create the education infrastructure, to build the profile of the industry as a whole as a great career option for nationals, and to look at ways to help the expatriate population to stay longer,” said Mr Smith.

"A focus really needs to be made on having a bigger pool of locally trained talent. I find it really hard to imagine that given the expected growth, the region will ever be able to bring in the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people that are going to be needed.

“However, health care in general has not been perceived as attractive to local talent as other industries – be that financial services or oil and gas.

“The culture really needs to be encouraged to see health care as a career that is as prestigious and worthy an aspiration as these other industries.”

Mr Smith said critical shortages could be addressed by organisations sharing professionals with a particular set of skills, and training opportunities for people who wanted to pursue an administrative role in the sector.

“At the moment there is no place in the region for somebody who does not want to be a doctor or a nurse or a physician to learn what it is to manage a hospital,” he said.

“You cannot get health administration training or degrees here. We are missing out.

“We have to be willing to invest in the expatriate population not just to come here and do a job. They come and get to a point where they feel they cannot develop any further and then they go to another country where they feel they can.”

Dr Amer Sharif, managing director of education at Dubai Healthcare City, agreed that boosting postgraduate medical education would encourage expatriates to stay.

He said while there was a growing trend in undergraduate medical education, there were too few opportunities for doctors in specialised fields.

“We need to raise the quality of training in the postgraduate level,” said Dr Sharif, an Emirati.

Emirati doctors who are forced to be trained abroad may then choose that country to practise in, he said. Trained doctors also want to further their learning and need to be affiliated with universities to progress.

“It is very hard to sustain a world-class healthcare system when you do not have a continuous flow of skill and expertise,” said Dr Sharif.

The imbalance of locally trained medical staff in the UAE compared with those brought in is due to the country’s relative youth, he said.

But with the UAE positioning itself as a world-class medical centre, the focus needs to be on having more Emiratis enter the field and more doctors train here.

“The need for homegrown talent and services is very strong,” Dr Sharif said.

The Arab Health Congress runs until Thursday at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.