Health and health systems performance in the United Arab Emirates.

In the early 2000s, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had good levels of health and its health system was ranked twenty-seventh in the world by the World Health Organization. Since that time, to further improve the situation and to address cost and quality challenges, the UAE has embarked on an ambitious programme of health system reform. These reforms have focused on the introduction of private health insurance and encouraging the growth of private health provision. In these areas there have been impressive achievements but while it is too early to say whether these reforms are succeeding some anxieties are emerging. These include the rising cost of services with no obvious improvement in outcomes, a growth in hospital provision that may not best meet the needs of the population, rising levels of chronic disease risk factors and an insuffcient focus on public health services, public health leadership, health work-force planning and research.