Eye hospital for the poor set for 2015

A specialist eye hospital for the poor will be built in Makkah’s Al-Joud District, said Muhammad Tawfiq Ballo, secretary-general of the Ebsar Charitable Foundation.
The construction will begin in 2015. The 150-bed hospital is expected to cost SR 25 million. Sobhi Batterji of the Saudi German Hospitals Group (SGH Group) is bearing all the cost.
The hospital will have Saudi specialists and consultants, and it will serve poor people with visual impairment.
“All designs and studies have been completed,” Ballo said, adding that when the designs were carried out the hospital was intended to be a general one for the SGH Group.
“Batterji is completing procedures to convert it into an eye hospital that serves the poor who cannot afford the cost of treatment,” he said.
Ballo said SGH is currently offering a 50 percent discount for visually impaired patients registered at Ebsar at all its hospitals around the Kingdom.
He called on all hospitals and medical insurance companies to do the same as the SGH Group and Magrabi Centers have done in cooperation with Ebsar.
“Providing free or discounted treatment would help charitable societies to provide services that contribute in making the society healthier,” Ballo said.
Ebsar Foundation chief Ahmad Muhammad Ali is expected to hold a press conference in the next few days to reveal more details about the eye hospital.