Member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have witnessed a rapid growth in the quantity and quality of healthcare services and a significant development in the general health sector over the past few decades. Large improvements in the basic infrastructure and the growth of the manpower in the sector are evidently reflected in the increasingly positive healthcare outcomes across the GCC region.
A pan GCC bulletin recently published by the Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf (GCC-Stat) compares the main indicators and statistical data of the healthcare sector across the region to the end of 2012 in contrast with the previous year. The bulletin provided prescribed information on the manpower in the sector, dynamic statistics and indicators, as well as charts and tables focusing on each GCC member state.
The achievements by the GCC governments - who prioritised healthcare services in their respective countries’ development plans, believing in the role of healthcare as a main pillar in the comprehensive developmental strategies – are supporting the ongoing efforts towards further progress and prosperity of the Gulf nations. The results within the health sector are evident in the increasing number of hospitals across the GCC region, rising by 3.6%, from 642 in 2011 to 665 in 2012. Additionally, the number of hospital beds grew in the same period by 4.5% from 86,878 in 2011 to 90,798 in 2012, while the number of hospital beds per 1000 population stood at 1.9 in 2012.
The overall number of doctors in 2012 was 120,277 compared to 110,228 doctors in the previous year, recording an annual increase of 9.1% (2.5 doctor per 1000 population). The number of general practitioners was 101,503 in 2012 compared to 93,607 in 2011, with an increase of 8.4% and a ratio of 2.1 general practitioners per 1000 population in 2012. As for dental care, the dentist/population ratio was 0.4 dentist per 1000 population in 2012 where the number of dentists was 18,774 compared to 16,621 dentists in 2011, registering an increase of 13% in one year. Meanwhile, the number of nursing staff across the GCC region has also increased in the same period by 7.3% with a ratio of 4.7 nursing staff per 1000 population in 2012, standing at 225,141 nursing staff in 2012 compared to 209,785 in 2011.
Improved healthcare services and growth in the number of facilities and healthcare workers resulted in decreases in infant mortality rates in 2012, which within the GCC member states ranged between 5.9 and 16.2 for every 1,000 births, versus the 2011 ratio of 6.4 to 16.5 deaths for every 1,000 births. Moreover, child mortality rates have also declined in 2012 which ranged between 7.6 and 18.7 for each 1,000 children, against the 2011 ratio of 8.2 to 19.1 deaths for every 1,000 children. In 2012, the fertility rates in the region ranged between 1.7 and 3.7 births per woman aged between 15 and 49. Additionally, 870,341 live births were recorded in 2012 with a ratio of 18.4 births per 1000 population, compared to 854,648 births in 2011, representing a 1.8% increase.
On the other hand, the number of registered deaths increased to 130,375 in 2012, compared to 126,899 in 2011, an increase of 2.7% and 2.7/1,000 death/population ratio.
Learn more about GCC health data and indicators, as well as various other pan GCC statistical reports, that are available at GCC-Stat’s official webpage http://www.gccstat.org and check out GCC-Stat’s latest news and updates on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/gccstat and Twitter https://twitter.com/GCCStat .