Sick

I had been sick last week. This gives the opportunity to write about health care in Dubai.

In the past almost 3 years a saw a few doctors here, not a great amount, but enough to draw the conclusion:

Avoid doctors in Dubai.

1. Dubai has no famous medical universities, research facilities, ongoing subsidized research programmes, etc. Why would a good doctor ever come here?

2. Rather than having big huge hospitals, it is more like a big bunch of "clinics". By "clinic", do not expect a "multidisciplinary medical institute that provides out-patient care only", as one would. Expect a (1) doctor to work from his villa. If you are lucky, there will be 3 doctors!

3. Medical facilities receive no funds from the state (there are no taxes, are there?), they are pure business. All business wants to make maximum profit in Dubai, and medical ones are not exempted. In Dubai, this generally means using cheap workforce. For the medical practitioners, it translates to cheap nurses. Who cannot speak English and are in trouble with the basics of their profession.

4. As most western expat's package contain good medical insurance with full refund and large cover, doctors are not shy to prescribe three times the drugs you really need and surgeries where you do not really need.

5. As most people here, your doctor will most likely be in some other country in a few years. Who cares if all the patients complain?

6. Maybe as a result of all the above, but doctors seem to follow what you ask for. It happened to me with different doctors, if I mention a blood test or X-ray, I will get it. No consideration whether I needed it. Instead of feeling well-serviced, it really disappoints me. At the end of the day, they are the doctors, they should tell you what you really need. They loose credits.

Other uniqueness of the clinics in town that they all contain "American" "British" "German" "Canadian" in their name, although their operators or doctors mostly have nothing to do with these countries. Not that the UK proved to me any excellence in health care, but apparently people worldwide assume otherwise.

Anyway, I feel better now, I dumped my unused X-ray sheet to the trashcan, so did I dump 168 dirhams of unused medication, and crossed out a new doctor on my list. I continue my search for a proper GP next time. Or just stick with the pharmacist, who gave me a box of 8.50 dirham pill that finally cured me.

On a final note, although it is frustrating, I am not discouraged using medical service here. Being young and generally healthy my problems are most probably standard ones that do not need great experience to deal with and even a crap doctor will later or sooner figure it.