Dubai Healthcare City celebrates eight years of success

Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), the world's first integrated healthcare free zone and a member of TECOM Investments, announced it has successfully completed eight years of operations, having achieved outstanding milestones and making major strides in realizing its vision to be a center for healthcare excellence in the region.

Currently, DHCC hosts over 2,000 licensed healthcare professionals benchmarked against international best practice standards, offering over 60 specialties and speaking 30 different languages. The free zone is home to over 90 facilities, with two internationally-accredited hospitals, plus numerous commercial and retail businesses offering best-in-class services to the region.

DHCC provides a comprehensive range of medical services including immunology, anesthesia, interventional cardiology, dentistry, dermatology, ENT, endocrinology, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics, ophthalmology, orthopedic, physical therapy, plastic surgery, radiology, and urology.

Some of the facilities at DHCC include The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Center (AMC), The City Hospital, Moorfield's Eye Hospital Dubai, Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Center, American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery Hospital, Dr. Nicolas and ASP, London Centre for Aesthetic Surgery, Dubai Gynecology and Fertility Centre, Magrabi Eye Centre, and the German Heart Center.

In addition, the healthcare free zone has established strong partnerships with leading global pharmaceutical majors such as Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Novo Nordisk.

Dr. Ayesha Abdullah, Managing Director of TECOM Investments' Sciences Cluster and Executive Director of DHCC, said: "Our ambition is to create an integrated healthcare city focused on excellence and we are proud today to see this becoming a reality with the support of the many national and international organizations and professionals within DHCC.

"Our strategy is based on extensive market research that highlighted significant expenditure by UAE residents on overseas treatment, outflow of healthcare professionals seeking medical education and research opportunities, as well as a fragmented healthcare system that impacted patient outcomes. Now, DHCC continues to make a difference in providing healthcare that matches global excellence."

In order to ensure patients receive the highest quality care and clinical services in a safe and reliable environment, the Center for Healthcare Planning and Quality (CPQ) was established jointly with Partners Harvard Medical International, as the independent regulatory body. CPQ is responsible for implementing rigorous standards that are aligned with international best practice.

In addition, CPQ has a mandate to enforce top quality standards for healthcare practice, assess clinical facilities regularly to maintain best practice, regulate traditional and alternative medical practice as the only regulator for such stream of medicine in the region, offer patient care and patient safety initiatives to drive continuous quality improvement, and collect statistical information to monitor clinical standards and patient satisfaction to improve healthcare delivery and customer care.

Dr. Ayesha added: "Healthcare will always be a fundamental need of any community and our focus on high quality delivery and patient care makes DHCC distinctively different from other institutions. As we continue to strengthen our value chain, we are not only becoming successful in retaining current renowned healthcare providers but are also developing into a hub for acclaimed clinical operators that are seeking to set up base in Dubai because of its growing reputation.

"In a short space of time, DHCC has grown into a major medical community and we have greater plans to deliver health and wellness services that compete on an international scale. Our approach is simple, to attract the best healthcare providers, deliver the best service and lead best practice."

With a host of initiatives to stay on course towards achieving its vision, DHCC remains committed to becoming an internationally recognized location of choice for quality healthcare services and excellence, and set a benchmark for the industry in the region. DHCC's ongoing attraction as a home for leading providers is demonstrated by a number of clinical openings in the past 12 months including the 10,000 square feet multi-specialist Samsung Medical Center, and N9NE, a unique obstetrics and gynecology institute and a new generation medical facility that gives ample focus to clinical design, as well as Royal Ayurveda, the first in the region to provide a full range of Ayurvedic medical services.

DHCC has supported a number of community health campaigns such as 'Quit & Win' anti smoking initiative, as well Breast Cancer awareness campaigns for which it has won numerous awards. Earlier this year, the free zone also launched its Patients' Rights Campaign and Charter with the support of the Customer Protection Unit (CPU) and CPQ, to increase public awareness on their rights and responsibilities in healthcare.

In addition, as part of its commitment to increase public engagement on healthcare, DHCC has established a presence across social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.