The vision behind Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) is, as with most Dubai ventures, hardly half-hearted. The £920m project aims to become “the internationally recognised location of choice for quality healthcare and an integrated centre of excellence for clinical and wellness services, medical education and research”.

The site, in central Dubai and initially comprising about 95 acres, will include medical teaching institutions, private hospitals, clinics and research centres and aims to bridge the gap in healthcare, education and research between Asia and Europe.

The construction is in two phases – the first focusing on diagnosis and conventional clinical treatment, while the second will centre on preventive and alternative medicine – and it’s in the second phase that the size of DHCC really hits home, adding about 435 acres, including three hotels, two resorts, 1,100 apartments, 50 “clinical villas” and six hospitals.

The Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum Academic Medical Centre, the core of DHCC’s structure, has five components: University Hospital; the Harvard Medical School Dubai Centre Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research, due for completion at the end of the year; the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research; Al-Maktoum Harvard Medical Library; and Boston University Dental Health Centre & Institute for Dental Research & Education, which started operations this year.

Dr Muhadditha Yahya al-Hashimi, CEO of DHCC, says: “We are always on the lookout for productive collaborations with world-class organisations in the healthcare industry that can add value to the community of Dubai, and foster better health, education and research.”

The Boston University Institute for Dental Research and Education welcomed its first batch of residents taking their master of science in dentistry, a postdoctoral three-year programme in five dental specialisms, in July this year. The 14 residents are from the UAE, India, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Johnson & Johnson inaugurated The Vision Care Institute, a professional education centre for opticians working in contact lenses, in June. The facility has a lecture hall, complete with interactive gadgetry and equipment, as well as suites and conference rooms. Phil Keefer, worldwide president of the institute, says: “We expect to train thousands of eye care professionals every year, once the institute is running at full capacity.”

London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital, founded in 1804, set up its first overseas branch in Dubai last July. The hospital at the Al Razi Medical Complex, part of the DHCC, provides day-case surgery and outpatient diagnostic and therapeutic services, including surgery and emergency care.

“We’re targeting the local and regional markets primarily,” says Dr Chris Canning, CEO and medical director of Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai. “Our prices are on a par with the rest of Dubai – but substantially cheaper than London.”

With referrals from across the region, Moorfields Dubai is capable of treating 95% of all patients on site with only 5% of cases, such as complex paediatric glaucomas and eye cancers, sent to London.

“We have five doctors, three of whom are Moorfields-trained opthamologists – they will be here for a few years,” adds Canning. “They probably won’t spend their whole lives here but it’s a good stepping stone.”

On the critical question of whether DHCC can realise its ambitious visionary goals, Canning says it’s not a given. It’s about standards, which you can’t impose. If Uni Hospital works, the rest will follow.”

The 400-bed University Hospital aims to become a regional centre for life sciences research, postgraduate medical education, and secondary and tertiary medical services. Construction of the hospital campus started last summer and, on completion in early 2011, it will offer courses in oncology, neurology, neurosurgery, musculoskeletal health, orthopedics, diabetes and metabolic diseases.

Dr Arne Brosig, medical director for the recently opened German Centre for Neurology and Psychiatry, says one of DHCC’s big advantages is the concentration of specialisms on the same site. “Doctors don’t have to wait endlessly for results from other doctors but receive them promptly and can rely on the quality.”

Services are certainly at an international level, whereas costs are moderate in comparison, he claims.

While confident DHCC will reach its aims, he recognises the challenges. “There have been drawbacks in the organisation and communication between DHCC and the Ministry of Health, which has led to annoyance and frustration of many doctors or entrepreneurs. The main challenge is it’s still not very effectively marketed on a larger scale for a prospective centre of excellence.”

Al Hashimi is confident it will mirror the wider growth in Dubai, which has set itself as an international tourist destination and become a centre of trade linking east and west. “It will become an international medical hub as soon as all the major healthcare projects near completion," she says.

The UAE is targeting 11.2m healthcare tourists by 2010, which would bring £966m of revenue to the region. However, Dubai’s healthcare sector must not only keep pace with growing patient demand, but also compete globally for the top talent.

Al Hashimi admits that the main issues are in recruitment and finding the highest calibre professionals. “World-class talent based outside the UAE may be sceptical due to the unfamiliarity of this region,” she says.

“Another challenge is the shortage in allied healthcare professionals, especially in the nursing field. We are currently in contact with international organisations to address the shortage in the UAE as well as the need to create nursing development programmes.”

The American Hospital Dubai is on the hunt for a new CEO and more than 50 physicians, as it branches out into new specialties such as paediatric diabetology and cosmetic surgery.

WHERE MEDICAL MINDS MEET

Dubai is pitching itself to the medical world as a destination capable of hosting everything from small meetings to global congresses. The FDI Dubai World Dental Congress, held last October, attracted more than 20,000 delegates and 3,000 exhibitors. About 80% of delegates were first-time visitors.

Dubai has won the right to stage the 2011 World Diabetes Conference, which could host about 12,000 delegates and 500 speakers.