A healthy market

With an entrenched sedentary lifestyle, junk food as part of the daily diet, a climate that discourages outdoor walking, an aging population and a good few genetic predispositions, the outlook for healthcare costs in the Gulf is both devastating and titillating. Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan (F&S) calculated the rise in per capita expenditure on healthcare in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries at a compound annual growth rate of 11.9 percent between 2006 and 2010, and forecasted the spending growth to remain similarly high at 10.3 percent between 2010 and 2018. The states in the GCC will need some 90,000 additional hospital beds by 2018, according to F&S. The countries with the largest demand are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates where 4,000 beds are under construction but thousands more will be needed. Another forecast, by consulting firm McKinsey & Co, projects direct healthcare costs in the GCC at