The level and standard of available healthcare is one of many factors by which a country’s quality of life is often judged – and many would even cite it as being the most important. What’s more, in countries that do offer outstanding healthcare, it often follows that many other elements are exceptionally favourable too. Take Sweden for example. Not only has the OECD named its healthcare system as the best of the 19 most industrialised countries in the world, it also has a strong economy and low levels of unemployment.
Sweden is just one of many countries from around the world with an admirable healthcare system. Two of the best known are Australia and the United States and another which is rapidly emerging is the UAE.
To see why the UAE is an increasingly important hub for healthcare, which offers a great number of opportunities for medical professionals, it’s important to look at the history of the country’s healthcare development.
A key milestone came in 1960 when two Americans doctors, Pat and Marian Kennedy set up a makeshift hospital at Al Ain at the invitation of Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Shakhbut. Over the years new facilities to the hospital were added, new premises were built and its reputation as a centre of medical excellence grew. Today the Oasis Hospital continues to operate, caring for the many and varied medical needs both of Emirati and international patients.
The success of the Oasis is part of a far broader emergence of world-class healthcare in the UAE as well as ambitious plans for the future. As part of the U.A.E. Vision 2021, it states that: “the UAE [will] … invest continually to build world-class healthcare infrastructure, expertise and services in order to fulfill citizens’ growing needs and expectations.”
In a comprehensive report prepared by the US-UAE Business Council it also points out that there are strong links being forged with healthcare and academic facilities in the United States including The Cleveland Clinic and The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Many major pharmaceutical companies like Bayer, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson also have a presence in the UAE.
It all adds up to create a very appealing environment for anyone wanting to develop their career in healthcare – and this is probably one of the reasons why Your World Healthcare reports that most of the enquiries they receive from graduate nurses relate to openings in the UAE.
But with good facilities, the potential of an excellent lifestyle as well as the chance to be part of this healthcare system, is it any wonder that more and more medical professionals are thinking of heading to the sunnier environment of the UAE?