Work on Dh550m hospital for UAQ begins

The first phase of construction on the 203-bed facility, donated to the emirate by Sheikh Khalifa, President of the UAE, will be completed by middle of next year.

UMM AL QAIWAIN // Work has begun on a Dh550 million hospital donated to the emirate by Sheikh Khalifa, President of the UAE.

The first phase of construction on the 203-bed facility would be completed by the middle of next year, said Dr Hanif Hassan, the Minister of Health, during a visit to the area.

A completion date was still to be set, he said.

"In appreciation of the donation and the good work of our president, Sheikh Saud bin Rashid al Mualla, the Ruler of Umm al Qaiwain, has named it the Sheikh Khalifa Hospital," said Dr Hassan. "The hospital took this name on the country's 39th National Day."

Sheikh Khalifa Hospital will be built on 54,000 square metres of land and, when complete, will include a number of clinics, a dental surgery and orthopaedic, gynaecology, obstetrics and dermatology departments.

A pharmacy, laboratory, emergency department, intensive care rooms, an operating theatre, three helicopter landing sites and a water treatment unit would also be incorporated into the construction, said Mohammed al Mansouri, the Director of the Ministry of Public Works in the Northern Emirates.

"It has been planned along international standards with all the [facilities] of a modern hospital," he said. "Once finished it will be the biggest hospital in the emirate with all departments not available at the UAQ Hospital available here."

The development comes amid an acute shortage of medical services in the emirate.

Currently, expectant mothers are being transferred to hospitals in neighbouring emirates to give birth as UAQ Hospital - the emirate's only government hospital - has been without an on-duty gynaecologist for several weeks.

The hospital has two gynaecologists on staff, but one is on annual leave and the other on sick leave.

At an FNC health committee in March, field visits to hospitals in the Northern Emirates found that UAQ Hospital suffered a shortage of staff. A report compiled after the visit also said an extra hospital was needed to meet the needs of the emirate's growing population.