She took a nursing job at the Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi before moving to Dubai a year later.
She is now the managing director of her own company, ICMG, a healthcare consultancy that supports workers in the UAE, and earns six figures.
Natalie and Laura Skellam are both nurses that have set up health consultancy ICMG in Dubai together
“Everything is just so convenient and just works in Dubai,” she continues. “If you go out for lunch, you’re going to a beach club and a five-star hotel… it shapes your mental health for the better, which shapes your physical health and whole wellbeing too.”
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Another report estimated that around 70 NHS nurses and midwives leave to work abroad daily, contributing to ever-increasing staff shortages and pressure.
Videos amassing tens of thousands of views show doctors and nurses living well in Dubai. An estimated 40,000 British expats live in Dubai. In 2024, UK searches for “jobs in Dubai” spiked 50 per cent on the previous year.
Natalie has now established herself as a highly respected voice in developing new healthcare guidelines in Dubai, working in tandem with the Dubai Health Authority.
Natalie has partnered with Laura Skellam, 29, another British nurse who left the NHS to work in Dubai in 2020, to found ICMG.
“In the UK, nurse practitioners can prescribe and are in charge of a lot more, but out here they use an American and physician-led model of care – everything you do has to be a doctor’s order,” she says. “You also go from a public, nurse-led service to something physician-led and private care, which is a business essentially, so that’s the biggest shock to the system over here.”
‘My salary is over £100,000 a year tax-free – at least double or triple what I would make in the NHS’
Toby Harris fell in love with Dubai after working as a diving coach to train athletes
“My first experience of NHS work was the short time period you have with patients, the limited resources you can share with them, and the wait times between seeing your patients again,” he says. “I set up my private practice during my fourth year because my flash-in-the-pan experience was enough to realise that I didn’t want to work in the NHS.”
When COVID shut down all sports, Toby pivoted back to his roots and set up a thriving physiotherapy and sports masseuse business in Dubai, earning well beyond the highest salary bands for NHS physiotherapists, which are between £52,000 and £72,000.
Comparing lifestyles with the UK, Toby says, “It’s sunny and has been sunny for the last 100 days. People here also really want to look after themselves. It’s a thriving place for sport, health, and longevity.”
Doctors are also relocating to Dubai, but the motivations aren’t always money – or sun-related.
However, despite being grateful for the system and all it offered, Dr Elamin left in March 2019 to build a new life with his family in Dubai.
Dr Wael Elamin worked in the NHS for 13 years but has found it has become increasingly unfriendly to foreignersFor Dr Elamin, leaving the NHS came down to comparing lifestyles, not salaries; he earns approximately the same wage in Dubai as in the UK. If it were viable, he would’ve stayed with the NHS, but Dr Elamin struggled to find a work-life balance in the UK.
Dubai’s working style also means that Dr Elamin spends less time dealing with “red tape and paperwork” and more time treating patients. Plus, he likes that the work feels more like an unemotional commitment because in the UK, working for the NHS comes with a “duty,” which he respected, but it “felt more and more cumbersome” due to the changing system, unrealistic expectations and environment.
Suzane Teneza struggled with the 12-hour shifts in the UAE and preferred her work-life balance in the NHSLaura has seen a rise in newly qualified nurses unable to secure posts with the NHS and a surge of parents “who want a better quality of life and want their kids to be safe”. With Dubai’s crime rate just a quarter of the UK’s, it’s understandable why Dubai has created such a lure for medical staff with desirable skills.
‘The salary in the UK may not be as high as in the UAE, but the work-life balance has been valuable’
However, she struggled with the 12-hour shifts and only having two days off a week, and the lack of unions meant that “if issues arose at work, there was limited support to address concerns.”
So, despite paying income tax and accepting a slightly lower wage, they moved to the UK to be together as a family.
“While the salary in the UK may not be as high as in the UAE, the work-life balance and professional development opportunities have been incredibly valuable,” she says. “Plus, I now get to live in a place where my family is together, which is the main reason for the move.”
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