Dubai licensed health facilities reach 5,931 as workforce grows to 70,566

Dubai's licensed health facilities reached 5,931 in the first half of 2026, a 7 percent rise on the 5,541 registered in the same six months of 2025, according to a sector review by the Dubai Health Authority.

The licensed workforce grew at a slightly slower pace. The emirate counted 70,566 health professionals at the end of the period, up 6.5 percent from 66,277 a year earlier. Women make up 47,927 of that total and men 22,639, so roughly two in three licensed practitioners are female.

Specialties and facility types

Among medical specialties, obstetrics and gynecology recorded the largest increase, followed by pediatrics and dermatology.

Home care was the fastest-growing facility category in percentage terms. Licensed providers rose 22.7 percent to 249 from 203. Pharmacies climbed 6.8 percent to 1,794 from 1,680, and complementary and alternative medicine centers went to 107 from 99, a gain of 8.1 percent. Medical complexes and optical centers, reported as a single group, increased 9.9 percent to 1,903 from 1,731.

Every comparison in the review sets the first six months of 2026 against the equivalent window of 2025.

Inspections rise faster than the sector

Regulatory activity expanded more quickly than the facility count. Inspectors carried out 5,378 visits in the half-year, 36.3 percent more than the 3,946 logged a year earlier. Of those, 3,154 were on-site and 2,224 were remote inspections and audits.

Compliance with regulatory standards and requirements improved to 80 percent of facilities, from 75 percent.

The authority's read

"The continued growth of Dubai's health sector reflects the development of the emirate's healthcare system and its ability to respond to the community's needs by expanding high-quality healthcare services, attracting talent and providing a regulatory and investment environment that supports the quality and sustainability of care," said Dr. Alawi Alsheikh-Ali, director general of the Dubai Health Authority.

Alsheikh-Ali said the authority would keep strengthening oversight and the regulatory environment, describing the goal as higher-quality, more specialized growth that supports the sector's role in serving residents and Dubai's standing as a destination for healthcare investment and advanced medical care.

The review presents the numbers as a measure of both capacity and demand: more facilities, more practitioners, and more services delivered outside hospital walls. Home care's 22.7 percent jump is the clearest example of that shift. It is also a category where oversight now arrives both through site visits and through remote audits, a combination that produced the sharpest increase in inspection volume the review records.