The practice of allowing patients to consult costly specialists for basic medical care needs to end, said top medical professionals in the UAE. Instead, general practitioners (GPs) have to be put at the heart of the UAE’s healthcare system to detect illnesses earlier and build a culture of check-ups and healthy lifestyles.
For too long clinics and hospitals have allowed patients with sore ankles to consult orthopaedic surgeons and those with aches and pains to see top specialists, reported The National citing senior medics.
Last year, the Department of Health said it would clamp down on patients going directly to costly specialists, or ‘doctor shopping’, to reduce insurance costs.
The shift is not just focused on controlling costs, but also ensuring patients get regular check-ups, which is crucial to the early diagnosis of cancer, heart disease and diabetes, conditions with high rates in the UAE.
Mr Stephen MacLaren, a senior executive at Al Futtaim Willis said it is not uncommon to see patients go for “second, third and fourth opinions from specialists”. The practice of going from consultant to consultant without seeing a GP first is time-consuming and expensive, he said.
Dr Mai Al Jaber, a public health specialist, acknowledged the scale of the challenge, which is regarded as the product of an insurance-based private healthcare system that allows patients to choose their own treatment. “In the UAE, the concept of primary healthcare didn’t exist until recently,” she said.
Despite growing awareness about lifestyle diseases and the prevalence of cancer, very few people visit the doctor unless something is wrong, which means that for some patients, critical illnesses are diagnosed late. M