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McKinsey & Company have recently highlighted the unparalleled and unprecedented rise in demand for health care over the course of the next two decades in the GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman). It is estimated that total health-care spending in the region will reach US$60 billion in 2025

Shaping factors:

• Population growth. Until 2015, the size of the population will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 3.0 percent, one of the highest in the world. In the longer term, the growth in population will ease back to 1.8 percent CAGR.As a result, total GCC population in 2025 will be almost twice the size it is today.

• Aging populations: Older people generally need to seek more medical care and have more expensive health profiles than younger people. Improvements in life expectancy over the past quarter of a century have left the GCC with an increasing number of elderly people requiring care. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the number of people over 65 will increase more than sevenfold during the next 25 years.2

• Health-risk factors: The GCC shows a unique pattern of risk factors. Among GCC nationals, the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes and obesity is 40%, unusually high relative to the rest of the world.

• Treatment pattern: Over the next 20 years, treatment demand will rise in the GCC by 240 percent (see Figure 2). In particular, cardiovascular disease will experience a steep increase (419 percent), as will diabetes-related ailments (323 percent).

• Hospital beds: By 2025, demand for hospital beds in the region will more than double, requiring almost 162,000 beds to meet this demand

• Cost: Health-care delivery in GCC countries will cost about US$60 billion by 2025, increasing fivefold from today

Major Disease groups: Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Neurological diseases, Musculoskeletal diseases, medical waste, skin infections and Mental disorders.