The drive for standardisation and quality across the region is a welcome one, with clear benefits for public health and patient outcomes.
The process inevitably presents challenges for healthcare players, however. Besides primary law, they must navigate a sea of regulatory codes of practice, guidance, and procedural documents to support the growing range of formally-licensed activities.
The region’s fragmented regulatory market makes innovation especially hard for international healthcare firms. While guidelines are often common across states, providers are investing much time in dealing with the regulatory authorities in each country, and registering their products or facilities in each.
“Regulatory requirements are becoming more and more stringent. That is painful now, but will be good in the long run. For example, the Dubai Health Authority has introduced a new nursing accreditation. This puts pressure on hospitals and staff, but it means that within a year or two, as people are accredited, the quality of care will improve.” – Shehzad Jamal, Knight Frank
“One of our biggest issues is commercialising a product. By the time we have registered a product, the real commercialisation takes place in year four. Developing 10 products would cost us 8 million dollars over four years. And unfortunately there is no funding available for R&D here, so you have to fund it internally.” – MV Suresh, NPI
“Forward looking regulators like the Dubai Health Authority are actively amending key elements of healthcare regulation frameworks in order to make healthcare projects much easier to deliver, and thereby more attractive.” – Andrea Tithecott, Al Tamimi & Company
“Developing regulatory compliance around new methods is time-consuming and challenging. For instance, if we install an unmanned ICU, acceptability of treatment by a robot among patients will be a challenge, while ensuring clinical governance is tricky from a regulator perspective. But when all the stakeholders work together, from providers to regulators to insurance networks, there is a greater chance to find solutions and enrich the ecosystem.” – Prasanth Manghat, NMC
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