Health Gulf healthcare battling staff shortages as demand rises By Gavin Gibbon February 27, 2025, 4:17 PM Wam Staff at a Burjeel clinic in the UAE. Retaining skilled medical professionals is a major issue across the GCC Recruitment issues across GCC 12,300 beds needed by 2029 Skilled staff move on Recruitment is the single biggest challenge facing the Gulf’s healthcare sector, according to industry experts. By 2029, the region will need around 12,300 additional hospital beds to serve a population that is not only growing in number but also aging and living longer, according to private equity group Alpen Capital. That is equivalent to growth in beds of almost 2 percent per year for the next four years to a total 140,000 beds across the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The bigger issue, however, is staffing. “The first major challenge is the shortage of qualified medical professionals across specialties,” said Amjad Al-Omari, senior director at Alpen Capital. The number of physicians – including dentists – and nurses in the GCC stands respectively at roughly 2.5 and 6.5 per 1,000 people. That compares with 2.8 and 7.9 per 1,000 people in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Set up in 1961, the OECD comprises 37 member countries of the world’s most developed economies. Nor is the Gulf alone in respect of a skills shortage. The World Economic Forum predicts a global shortfall of 10 million healthcare workers by 2030. Low and middle- income countries will be worst affected. “Unless and until we build enough capacity to grow, develop and locally graduate these talents, it will continue to be a problem,” said Dr Mohaymen Abdelghany, CEO of Fakeeh University Hospital in Saudi Arabia. Traditionally reliant on imported, expatriate talent, the obstacle in the Gulf is that this talent is also mobile or transient. Three quarters of the UAE’s 11 million people are expatriates. “They come, they spend two, three, four years here and then they move to other parts of the world, the UK, Canada, US, for more stable jobs and a more prosperous career,” Dr Abdelghany said. Training and tech to tackle healthcare staff shortage Affordable healthcare in the GCC: a prescription for profit UAE and Kuwait companies struggling to hire staff Although the GCC currently boasts a relatively young population, this is set to change, with the median age rising from 32 years in 2022 to 51 years by the end of the century, according to global consultants PwC. This has already started to put pressure on the healthcare sector. Total spending – government and private – on healthcare in the GCC stood at almost $100 billion in 2023, according to Alpen Capital. That is expected to rise to almost $160 billion in 2029. The more spending that is expected, the more staffing will be required, especially from GCC nationals. For instance, more than 3,000 students – most of them local nationals – are enrolled at the Fakeeh College of Medical Science in Jeddah. “This is how to build the capacity for the future,” Dr Abdelghany said.
