First phase of UAE-funded Cairo heart hospital complete

Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Centre in Cairo set to open in 2023 and provide free care to vulnerable communities

Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Centre in Cairo set to open in 2023 and is funded by the UAE. Courtesy: Dubai Media Office

Construction on the first phase of a heart centre in Egypt, funded by the UAE, is complete.

Mohammed bin Rashid Global Initiatives, a charity foundation based in Dubai, is building the 22,000-square-metre Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Centre in Cairo.

The fully-equipped hospital will provide quality treatment to vulnerable communities and free cardiovascular care to patients from across the Arab world.

The centre was honoured by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, as the Humanitarian Cause of the Year, during the Arab Hope Makers award ceremony in February last year.

More than Dh86 million ($23.4) was raised in donations and the proceeds of the Arab Hope Makers show were allocated to support the construction of the centre to provide free care.

Egyptian-British Dr Magdi Yacoub is one of the world's most respected cardiac surgeons, having performed more than 40,000 open heart operations and conducted over 2,000 heart transplants.

He also performed one of the first heart transplants in the UK in 1980.

Once completed in 2023, the centre will conduct 12,000 heart operations annually, of which 60 per cent will be for children.

Its clinics will also receive over 120,000 patients annually and the hospital will train more than1,500 cardiologists and cardiac surgeons through the Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation.

It will also conduct advance research on cardiac diseases.

"The completion of an important stage of the Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Centre project is a promising glimmer of hope for heart patients, especially children, and for the medical scientific research community in the Arab world," said Mohammed Al Gergawi, secretary general of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives.

Last year, The Big Heart Foundation, a charity in Sharjah, made a $4m donation to build a paediatric intensive care unit in the heart centre.

This is in memory of Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi, the son of Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah.

The unit will be named after Sheikh Khalid, who died, aged 39, in London, in 2019.