Burjeel Holdings Launches Dedicated Day Surgery Platform to Support Regional Expansion and Appoints Leadership Team
Burjeel Holdings, a leading super-specialty healthcare services provider in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), is strengthening its ambulatory healthcare business by bringing its four day surgery centers in the United Arab Emirates under a dedicated business vertical. The new structure is intended to create a unified platform for day surgery operations and support the company’s next phase of growth in ambulatory and same-day care across the UAE and the wider region.
As part of the organizational move, Burjeel Holdings has appointed a dedicated leadership team for the platform. Arun Lobo has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, Pawan Sharma will serve as Chief Financial Officer, and Dr. Omer Baldo has been appointed Chief Medical Officer.
The creation of the dedicated platform comes as Burjeel prepares to expand its day surgery footprint through additional facilities in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The company’s current mid-term plan includes four additional day surgery centers in the UAE and two in Saudi Arabia, providing a foundation for a broader regional network focused on ambulatory and same-day procedures.
The move reflects Burjeel Holdings’ broader strategy of developing specialized healthcare platforms alongside its hospital network, while creating operating structures that can support growth, efficiency and consistent clinical standards.
Four UAE Centers Form the Foundation
Burjeel currently operates four day surgery centers in the UAE. These include Burjeel Day Surgery Center, Al Reem Island; Burjeel Day Surgery Center, Shahama; Burjeel Day Surgery Center, Al Dhafra; and Burjeel Day Surgery Center, Al Dhahir in Al Ain.
By bringing these facilities together under one business vertical, Burjeel intends to establish common clinical and operational oversight across the network.
The unified structure is expected to provide clearer accountability for clinical quality, patient experience, growth and financial performance. It will also enable the company to coordinate operations across the centers rather than managing each facility as an independent asset.
Day surgery facilities are designed to provide selected procedures without requiring patients to stay overnight in a hospital. This model can be particularly suited to elective and minimally invasive procedures where patients can safely return home following treatment and recovery.
For healthcare providers, dedicated ambulatory facilities can also help separate appropriate same-day procedures from more complex hospital-based cases.
Building a Scalable Day Surgery Business
Burjeel’s decision to create a dedicated day surgery platform is aimed at establishing a scalable operating model that can be applied as the company expands.The existing centers have demonstrated demand for ambulatory care in the UAE, while mature centers have achieved EBITDA margins that rank among the highest across Burjeel’s healthcare assets, according to the company.
The new structure is designed to build on this operating performance through greater standardization and coordination.Common clinical pathways can help establish consistent approaches to care across multiple locations. Centralized financial management can provide greater visibility into costs and profitability, while coordinated procurement can potentially improve purchasing efficiency across the platform.
Workforce planning is another area where a unified model can support the growing network. By managing staffing requirements across multiple facilities, Burjeel can align workforce resources with patient demand and procedure volumes.The company also expects the new structure to provide stronger visibility into operational performance across individual centers and the overall platform.
These capabilities can become increasingly important as the number of facilities grows. A standardized framework allows new centers to be integrated into established processes for clinical quality, financial management and performance monitoring.
Supporting the Broader Hospital Network
The dedicated day surgery model is also intended to complement Burjeel’s existing hospitals rather than operate separately from them.Many elective and minimally invasive procedures can be performed in dedicated same-day settings when an overnight hospital stay is not clinically necessary. By directing appropriate cases to day surgery centers, Burjeel can potentially free operating theatre and inpatient bed capacity within larger hospitals.
This can allow hospitals to focus more of their resources on complex tertiary and quaternary cases that require advanced facilities, specialist teams or longer periods of inpatient care.At the same time, day surgery centers can provide patients with access to procedures in facilities specifically designed around shorter episodes of care.
Burjeel’s broader healthcare network provides another advantage. Day surgery patients can benefit from access to the Group’s wider consultant base, clinics and hospitals, while patients who require more advanced treatment can be referred into tertiary or quaternary facilities within the network.This creates a connected care model in which different facilities can perform complementary roles based on patient needs.
A Model for Regional Expansion
The new business vertical is also intended to create a repeatable model for Burjeel’s future expansion.As the company develops additional centers, facilities can operate within a common framework covering clinical standards, financial management, operational processes and performance measurement.
At the same time, the individual centers can adapt their services to local healthcare demand and specialty requirements.Burjeel’s planned expansion includes four additional centers in the UAE and two in Saudi Arabia. The expansion is intended to broaden access to ambulatory and same-day care while establishing a larger regional platform.
The company sees opportunities for the model to support both greenfield development and potential partnerships across the UAE and selected GCC markets.The growth strategy reflects a wider shift in healthcare delivery toward outpatient and ambulatory models for procedures that do not require prolonged hospital stays. By establishing a dedicated platform, Burjeel aims to position its day surgery business to participate in that development while maintaining connections to its broader healthcare network.
Planned Saudi Arabia Expansion
Saudi Arabia is an important component of Burjeel’s day surgery expansion strategy.According to the company, each Burjeel One day surgery center in Saudi Arabia requires approximately AED 140 million in capital expenditure and is expected to generate more than AED 200 million in annual revenue at maturity, with an EBITDA margin in the mid-20% range.
These projected economics illustrate the role day surgery is expected to play within Burjeel’s broader growth strategy.The Saudi expansion will allow Burjeel to apply its day surgery operating model in another major GCC healthcare market while adapting services to local patient needs and market conditions.
The planned facilities are part of the Group’s wider expansion program, which includes multiple healthcare assets across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC.
Part of an 18-Asset Growth Program
The day surgery platform forms part of Burjeel Holdings’ broader 18-asset mid-term growth program.The program spans multiple healthcare segments across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC. Through this strategy, Burjeel is developing specialized platforms alongside its established hospital and clinic network.
The approach enables the Group to pursue growth across different areas of healthcare while creating dedicated operating structures for businesses with distinct clinical and commercial characteristics.
Day surgery is one such area, with its combination of outpatient care, specialized facilities and shorter patient stays.The new platform structure gives Burjeel an organizational framework through which it can manage this segment as a distinct business while continuing to connect it with the Group’s broader healthcare ecosystem.
Leadership Team to Drive the Platform
Burjeel has appointed three executives to lead the new day surgery platform.
Arun Lobo, who currently serves as Senior Director – Operations, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. In his new role, Lobo will oversee the platform’s overall strategy, operations, clinical performance and expansion.
His responsibilities will include helping establish the operating model for the growing network and coordinating the development of existing and future centers.
Pawan Sharma has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. Sharma currently serves as Cluster Finance Manager and will take responsibility for financial strategy, planning, governance, performance management and capital allocation for the platform.
His role will be important as Burjeel expands the business and commits additional capital to new facilities.
Dr. Omer Baldo, currently a Consultant in Urology, has been appointed Chief Medical Officer. He will lead clinical strategy and medical governance across the platform, with responsibility for quality outcomes, patient safety and physician engagement.
Together, the three executives will be responsible for the platform’s growth, profitability, capital efficiency and returns.
Integrating Clinical and Financial Performance
The creation of dedicated leadership roles reflects Burjeel’s intention to manage the day surgery centers as an integrated business.Clinical performance and financial performance will be managed alongside one another, with the leadership team accountable for both patient outcomes and operational results.
This approach is particularly relevant as Burjeel expands the number of facilities in the network. Maintaining clinical standards across multiple locations requires clear governance structures, while expansion requires disciplined capital allocation and consistent financial oversight.
The platform structure is designed to bring these responsibilities together.The Chief Medical Officer will focus on clinical quality, patient safety and physician engagement, while the CEO will oversee the overall business and operational strategy. The CFO will manage financial performance and capital allocation.
This leadership model provides dedicated accountability across the major areas required to operate and expand a regional day surgery business.
Standardization Across the Network
Standardization will be another important component of the new platform.As Burjeel adds facilities, common clinical pathways and operating processes can help create consistency across locations. Standardized approaches can also support training, workforce planning, procurement and performance measurement.
At the same time, Burjeel can tailor individual facilities to local demand.This balance between centralized oversight and local adaptation can allow the company to maintain common standards while ensuring that each center provides services appropriate to the community it serves.
The approach also creates the possibility of sharing operational knowledge across the network. Practices developed at mature centers can potentially inform the development of newer facilities.
Expanding Access to Same-Day Care
The expansion of day surgery centers is ultimately intended to increase access to procedures that can be delivered safely without an overnight hospital stay.Ambulatory care can provide patients with a more focused care setting for appropriate procedures while helping healthcare systems use hospital infrastructure more efficiently.
For Burjeel, the model also creates another connection between its hospitals, clinics and specialist network.Patients receiving care at day surgery centers can remain connected to the broader Burjeel system when they need additional consultations, diagnostic services or more complex treatment.
This integrated approach can help the Group use its different healthcare assets according to the complexity of patient needs.Burjeel Holdings’ creation of a dedicated day surgery platform represents a new phase in the development of its ambulatory healthcare business.
The four existing UAE centers provide the foundation for the platform, while the planned four additional UAE facilities and two Saudi Arabian centers create a pipeline for regional expansion.With a dedicated leadership team, unified financial management and common clinical and operational oversight, Burjeel is establishing a structure designed to support the growth of the business.
The platform will operate as part of Burjeel’s wider healthcare network, leveraging the Group’s hospitals, clinics and consultant base while maintaining pathways for patients who require more advanced care.As the healthcare sector continues to expand the use of ambulatory and same-day treatment models, Burjeel intends to build on its existing experience and create a scalable regional platform.
The company’s day surgery strategy combines specialized facilities, standardized operating processes, clinical governance and financial accountability. Together with its wider 18-asset growth program, the initiative forms part of Burjeel Holdings’ efforts to expand its healthcare presence across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC while developing specialized businesses alongside its hospital network.
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