Medical tourism is on the rise in the MENA region, which would in turn drive the medical plastics market's growth in the years to come.
Medical
Patients Beyond Borders reports that all over the world, there is an increasing trend for patients to seek medical expertise overseas - both for plastic and cosmetic procedures and for more serious surgery including heart operations and cancer treatments.
Medical tourism is said to be generating $50 billion (£32 billion) annually and is increasing by between 15 and 25 per cent year-on-year and the hospital facilities in Middle Eastern nations such as the UAE are fast becoming the medical tourist's choice destination.
Dubai, according to reports, has taken action to capitalise on its growing medical tourism market, with a plan to bring half a million travelling patients into its state-of-the-art hospitals by 2020. This target is likely to be met as the Emirate treated 135,000 foreign visitors in its hospitals in 2014 and this year anticipates an 11 per cent jump on top of that to 150,000.
With numbers like this, demand for the very best medical equipment will rise, and with it, the Middle Eastern medical plastics marketplace.