500-bed Riyadh hospital opened

Prince Muqrin, second deputy premier, chancellor and special envoy for the king, inaugurated the 500-bed, state-of-the-art Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz Hospital yesterday on behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
The name of the hospital at the time of construction was Eastern Riyadh Hospital, which was changed to Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz Hospital on a special directive issued by King Abdullah in November 2011.
The SR 455-million hospital is built on an area spanning more than 120,000 square meters.
Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said the hospital has been built on par with the best global designs and that it complies with the highest standards of global quality health care services. Situated in the Al-Rayan district, it has five floors. It has 15 operation theaters and one for emergency surgeries.
Other facilities are a radiology unit, a mammogram screening section, a center for burns, a laboratory, a blood bank, a physiotherapy unit and rehabilitative treatment. The emergency department has 102 beds and is the largest in the region. The dialysis unit has 52 dialysis machines.
Director General of the Executive Board of the GCC Health Ministers Council Tawfik Khoja said yesterday that the new facility will be a beacon for health care service in the Gulf. Thanking King Abdullah and the Ministry of Health for completing such a gigantic project, he said the hospital would greatly benefit the public.
The Dean of the College of Medicine and Supervisor of the University Hospital, Mubarak bin Fahad Al Faran, said the entire medical institution, with fully equipped operation rooms and all its facilities, will be a pleasant and useful addition to a host of health projects managed by the Ministry of Health.
Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Al-Mirghalani told Arab News that it is one of the largest hospitals and strategically located to serve citizens and residents in the eastern and northern parts of Riyadh. “The hospital is built and designed according to the US code, which is one of the most important specifications for fulfilling the needs of the beneficiaries of the service,” he said.