Public healthcare project appraisal in the united arab emirates: Towards better feasibility

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) there has been a tremendous improvement in levels of medical healthcare services over the past few years. There is a clear government vision to improve the healthcare services in all Emirates. This fact is supported by the establishment of the General Authority for Health Services for the Emirates of Abu Dhabi (GAHS). This research aims at investigating the role of the local government authorities and the private sector in the appraisal process of public healthcare projects in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It traces and discusses procedures currently used by involved authorities and bodies for procurement, cost budgeting and cost control during public healthcare project lifecycle in the UAE. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the design of organization management structure of different involved entities is traced, analysed and judged. The study is guided by a comprehensive literature review and a survey of cost data of several healthcare projects as well as interview sessions with senior engineers and personnel from public sector, industrial experts and construction managers involved in the healthcare project lifecycle. Two major factors combine to create the situation where UAE public healthcare projects suffer from cost and time overruns. First, the consequential changes arising from insufficient scope definitions and second, the lack of appropriate communication and coordination between the government bodies involved during the healthcare project. The study finally concludes with recommendations for improving the accuracy of the early cost estimating of UAE healthcare projects and their overall appraisal processes.