Mena 'in need of over 3,000 hospitals by 2020'

More than 3,000 new hospitals will have to be built in five major cities across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region by 2022 to cater to the growing healthcare demand of the citizens, said a report by leading property expert JLL. With the current shortage of hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities, an ageing population and the rise of medical tourism, there is a pressing need for both more and better healthcare facilities in the region over the next five years, stated JLL in the new report released during the Cityscape Global expo in Dubai, UAE. Demand for hospitals and healthcare facilities is increasing in the region, driven by a combination of an ageing population and the growing popularity of medical tourism, it stated. The Mena region lags far behind other developed economies in terms of both per capita spending on healthcare and provision of hospital beds, said the JLL in its report. The per capita spending on healthcare in the UAE is only 17 per cent of what is being spent in Switzerland, and Mena has an average of only 1.9 beds per 1,000 population in comparison to an OECD average of 4.8 beds, stated the report highlighting the huge opportunity for investors in the Mena real estate market over the next five years. Even to simply maintain the current provision rate of hospital beds per person would require the creation of 10,500 additional hospital beds in the five major cities across the region over the next five years, and assuming a typical ratio of 150 beds per hospital means there would be a need for around 70 additional hospitals. If there is a need to increase the provision of hospital beds in line with the current OECD average of 4.8 beds per one thousand people, a staggering 470,000 additional beds would be required across these same five major cities by 2022, stated the JLL report. According to the expert, the number of people aged 65 years is forecast to increase by 4.4 per cent per annum over the next five years, thus taking their figure from 21 million to 26 million by 2020. While government spending on healthcare is increasing across the region, there is a growing opportunity for more real estate investor involvement in the healthcare sector, said the JLL report. Developers of large planned communities in the region are already recognising the need and incorporating clinics and other non-specialist healthcare facilities in their developments