Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Health and Medicine in Dubai

hi,
not sure if this is in the right section - sorry if its not!


today i got into an accident here in england (accident with a hammer that went down to the bone!) - and went off to A & E and had to get stitches etc and it got me thinking more - how is the health care in Dubai and how does the system work compared to the NHS in the UK (today - the NHS were fab with me - might be a 1st but no complaints today apart from a lecture that i should be up-to-date with my Tetnus as i have horses!)

just got me thinking - mind you, doubt over there i would be doing such crazy things as i did to result in my injury!

Government health care - some people will say good , some terrible.
Private healthcare is alright, I think, but you do hear your negative stories.

I say this based on what I know. Thankfully, I've never needed anything major done, and I also wouldn't know how to compare the healthcare here to the UK.
There are lots of nice people here who I'm sure will give you more info.


Hope you're ok now and recovering well!

When you move here you should make sure that you get health insurance through your work or buy some on your own. So far I think the quality here is good, but I don't have a lot of experience with the health care yet, only a little.

I go to a private clinic....no complaints
My only experience in the public hospital is where I donate blood - its also clean and efficient.

Can anyone recommend a private healthcare company?

What are the costs for a standard annual cover?

Fayz, can you help with this one? I think Fayz was looking into this himself a little while ago. Not sure.

XPClone wrote:Can anyone recommend a private healthcare company?

What are the costs for a standard annual cover?

In my opinion, one of the best Healthcare Insurances is BUPA International, I have no idea regarding the cost but I am sure you can get details from the following;

WEB; www.bupa-intl.com
e-mail info@bupa-intl.com

If you manage to get this insurance you are covered for everything at The American Hospital as a minimum.

Good luck

S & O

the UAE is alright for day to day things and your GP and what not. However when it comes to complex surgeries or if you develop something that is not so common your not in the right place. Its important to point that in those situations the speciality levels are much better in goverment hospitals than in private. beleive it or not many private hospitals will refer you to govement hospitals in the more complex situations.

That being said nearby Jordan has excellent medical facilities and professionals and is renowed for good eye surgoens, excellent cancer treatment faciltiies and most people in the middle east go there for medical vacations.

I am sorry, but I have to disagree with almost everybody.

Sage, Bupa is not that good and it does not cover everything in the American Hospital. I mean, classic cover for some stupid reason does NOT cover GPs, only specialits, which thought was not a big deal until I needed to go to A&E, and of course, all the doctors on call were actually GPs, so I had to pay the first 300+ DHs. So at the end we ended up upgrading to the Gold, coverage (my husband's company only offered free classic one), as I gote fed up of having to pay for almost all of my meical treatmnets here which were not covered by BUPA (GPs, emregencies, pregnancy, etc)

Regarding other doctors, I've only been to private ones, and I've been to not less than 9 different ones : gynecologists, pediatricians, GPs, internal medicine, traumatologist, osteopaths, you name it! No, I am not a hipocondriac, but have children,just had a baby and a stupid cough I haven't been able to get rid of (and after being to 3 incompetent doctors I have given up), so that's why I've been to so many doctors.

From all of them I was only 100% satisfied with one GP. The others go form just mediocre to the plain bad, sorry, BAAAD. I mean, one of the main differences here with the UK is that medicine is just another business, so they will try to get you to take the most unnecessary test (or jabs for te kids), for instance. So my husband and me feel so ripped off everytime we go to any doctor here.

I mean, over here is the opposite side of the spectrum from the UK healthwise. In the UK most GPs say that everything is normal and you won't see and specialist or have tests done unless you are dying, over here if they could they will make you have x-rays, a CTI and blood tests every time you had a cold!

Maybe I've been just unlucky, but as I told you, after visiting so many, I think I know what I am talking about.

So good luck!

Julieta wrote:I am sorry, but I have to disagree with almost everybody.

Sage, Bupa is not that good and it does not cover everything in the American Hospital. I mean, classic cover for some stupid reason does NOT cover GPs, only specialits, which thought was not a big deal until I needed to go to A&E, and of course, all the doctors on call were actually GPs, so I had to pay the first 300+ DHs. So at the end we ended up upgrading to the Gold, coverage (my husband's company only offered free classic one), as I gote fed up of having to pay for almost all of my meical treatmnets here which were not covered by BUPA (GPs, emregencies, pregnancy, etc)

Regarding other doctors, I've only been to private ones, and I've been to not less than 9 different ones : gynecologists, pediatricians, GPs, internal medicine, traumatologist, osteopaths, you name it! No, I am not a hipocondriac, but have children,just had a baby and a stupid cough I haven't been able to get rid of (and after being to 3 incompetent doctors I have given up), so that's why I've been to so many doctors.

From all of them I was only 100% satisfied with one GP. The others go form just mediocre to the plain bad, sorry, BAAAD. I mean, one of the main differences here with the UK is that medicine is just another business, so they will try to get you to take the most unnecessary test (or jabs for te kids), for instance. So my husband and me feel so ripped off everytime we go to any doctor here.

I mean, over here is the opposite side of the spectrum from the UK healthwise. In the UK most GPs say that everything is normal and you won't see and specialist or have tests done unless you are dying, over here if they could they will make you have x-rays, a CTI and blood tests every time you had a cold!

Maybe I've been just unlucky, but as I told you, after visiting so many, I think I know what I am talking about.

So good luck!

Sorry to hear about all of your troubles, however I would like to clarify that we do have Bupa Gold, and so far have not had any problem at all.

Good for you Sage! Your employer might be less stingy than my husband's, ha,ha! In fact, I think we were not the only ones complaining about BUPA, as they recently changed insurance company, as many people were not happy either. So we have now Goodhealth, but I haven't made a single claim (just yet, it won't be long, ha,ha!) so no idea how good or rubbish they are.

One big drawback for us (we have 2 kids) it's that in spite fo having the maximum level of coverage, it does not cover vaccinations (Bupa did cover them, even in the classic level) But well, there is no much I can do about it as it was not our decision to change but the company's.

But maybe something to consider if you have kids and are shopping around for insurance. I mean, it is rather hard for someone who comes from the UK and is used to free healthcare (well, not like completely free, as those NHS contributions are quite hefty after all!) as you just take the services for granted, but in a private system there are many shades of grey.

kanelli wrote:Fayz, can you help with this one? I think Fayz was looking into this himself a little while ago. Not sure.

Sorry I just saw this, missed it the first time around.

Another option Lucki is to check out Royal Sun Alliance

https://www.fasterquote.ae/content/index.html

unfortunately for those of us that don't work for large companies and have to find our own insurance it is a bit of a pain.

I was insured by Telfer which is a Canadian Expat insurance company for my first stint in Dubai, currently I don't have health insurance, I'm looking for a package that covers dental but the one above from Royal Sun was about AED 3000 for everything but.

Telfer use to cost me CDN 2000/year, including loss of income and airlifting out of war zones should the need arise along with optical and dental.

Good luck in whatever you decide but chances are your employer will provide some sort of group policy here.