Healthcare markets in the GCC have huge potential for investment and offers good returns to investors as the demand for new hospitals clinics and medical services across the region is on the rise according to an industry player.

Amitava Ghosal chief executive and executive board member of Avivo Group said healthcare markets in the GCC are extremely promising and undersupplied despite rapid growth in the sector and it will continue to grow at an annual rate of 4.4 per cent to hit $69.4 billion by 2020.

From 32 to 50 Avivo Group Hospitals specialised Avivo Group Clinics and accessible PrimaCare Clinics and PrimaCare Pharmacies - these facilities comprise of two hospitals such as conceive gynaecology and fertility hospitals and centres 14 speciality centres such as the German Medical Centre eight high-end dental centres such as Dr Michael's Dental Clinic six pharmacies and two state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities.

"The surging demand for healthcare services across the region is drawing in massive investment aimed at building new hospitals and clinics aimed at bridging the gap between demand and supply. Despite the addition of hundreds of new hospital beds in the country there is still demand for more" Ghosal told Khaleej Times during an interview on the sidelines of an event in Dubai.

Ghosal said the UAE is a market with tremendous potential for excellent healthcare facilities in the region.

Referring to a Bloomberg report he said the UAE healthcare system is already operating at a high standard and ranked 13th globally beating out developed countries such as the UK US Canada France and Germany.

"Healthcare spending in the UAE is among the highest region-wide and continues to increase. Per capita healthcare spends for the UAE are the second highest in the GCC and grew at a consistent 8.1 per cent compound annual growth rate [CAGR] between 2006 and 2011" he said.

Elaborating other Gulf markets he said the Oman market is expected to grow at 11.8 per cent between 2013 and 2018 and will continue to demonstrate a CAGR of 3.3 per cent to hit $2.2 billion by 2020.

In Kuwait the developing healthcare sector has seen demand pressures exerted by population growth and increasing life expectancy. The high-potential healthcare market is expected to hit $5.4 billion in 2018 delivering a CAGR of 9.4 per cent.

About Qatar he said it is the GCC's fastest-growing healthcare market posting a 23 per cent CAGR during 2006 and 2011 and continues to do so.

"There is obviously a better industry outlook driven by a more advantageous legal framework and increasing demand for accessible high-quality healthcare services in the region" he said.

Ghosal said the group's recent rebranding with Healthcare Mena Limited of Al Masah Group comes as part of an overall strategy to position Avivo Group as one of the largest integrated healthcare services providers in the UAE and the region. The unified brand - Avivo Group - will ensure consistency in operating procedures best practices and corporate values across all operations and facilities in current and future markets.

"Unifying the name and the overall operations will further develop a spectrum of healthcare options that offer patients excellent medical treatment. Avivo Group will ensure maximum accessibility for patients across a spectrum of demographics and income through a portfolio of hospitals medical centers and clinics."

Expansion plans

Ghosal said Avivo Group currently owns and operates 32 healthcare facilities and delivers medical services under 22 specialisations employing over 200 highly-qualified doctors backed by more than 1000 support staff to serve 1.3 million patients every year.

With the planned expansion the group will increase the number of annually served patients to two million and create more than 1000 new job opportunities across the GCC region.

"Avivo Group will not only expand its presence in its active markets such as Abu Dhabi Dubai Sharjah and Kuwait but also has plans to expand into Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia and South-east Asia in 2016" he said.

He said the investment value will be close to Dh1.1 billion within the next two years and will be primarily targeted towards growth and regional expansion.

"This investment will increase the number of healthcare facilities under the Avivo Group brand from 32 to 50 by the end of 2016."

To a question he said the UAE in general and Dubai in particular are focusing their efforts on becoming a regional and global hub for medical tourism.

"I have to say that the growth and achievements in the healthcare industry in the past few years have been outstanding and show a great commitment from the public sector to raise the standards of healthcare offerings by bringing in the best expertise and technological advancements from all over the globe."

About rising cost of healthcare services he said the reason behind the higher costs are increased costs of building hospitals and facilities higher costs of recruitment of qualified doctors and technical staff and of course greater emphasis on bettering the quality of operations and service. However reforms in medical insurance laws will help a lot in decreasing the cost to the common man.

"This is a valid comment and I do acknowledge seeing some worrisome trends as far as inflation in healthcare costs are concerned. We are also striving to make the healthcare as affordable and as accessible as possible to all the residents through our efforts at innovation and increase in operational efficiencies" he said.

Regarding misuse of insurance facility by some of the medical centres and hospitals he said this is a common issue faced across the globe wherever there are widespread insurance and healthcare providers.

"While there is some element of truth in it in majority of cases it's not true. However the way to tackle this problem is by having very solid systems and processes as well as effective and regular monitoring" Ghosal concluded.

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