GCC health care rely heavily on expatriate workforce: report

The health care sector in Gulf countries is heavily reliant on expatriate workforce, especially physicians and nurses, according to a new report.
The health care workforce, especially physicians and nurses, remains mainly expatriates, said the Deloitte's report titled '2015 global health care outlook: Common goals, competing priorities'.
According to the report, the region is making efforts to improve health care access and quality and closing the wide gap between current and targeted states remains a top challenge this year.
"Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries depend heavily on government funding to meet health care needs. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the government accounted for 65.8 per cent of health care spending in 2012, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO)," said Julian Hawkins, partner in charge for Consulting at Deloitte Middle East.

The report, while examining the current state of the global health care sector and its upcoming challenges, says that to address the increasing demand for healthcare, which includes Saudi nationals who are entitled to free health care as well as religious pilgrims, the government's 2014 budget allocated USD 28.8 billion to health and social welfare.
The report also finds that health care, education and social services continue to be priorities in the UAE's federal budget.

In terms of health care, UAE nationals are covered under the government-funded health care program, whilst expatriates have to pay for private health care insurance.

"Unequal access to health care facilities and a continued shortage of health care professionals across the Middle East illustrate the region's need for more private sector involvement to fill the gap between increasing needs and available capacity," Hawkins said.
"Governments are responding to this imperative by introducing programs and incentives to encourage private sector growth, optimise current operations and leverage technology to raise the quality of health care services in GCC countries," he added.
The GCC is a regional intergovernmental political and economic union. Its member states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.