Several new government hospitals will be built in the coming years to cater to an expanding population, Health Minister Dr Faisal Al Hamer revealed yesterday. King Hamad General Hospital, Busaiteen, is due to be completed in the second part of next year, but he said there were also plans to build more government hospitals around the country.
A hospital is needed to cater for people in A’ali, Isa Town and Riffa, while another is required for those in Jaw and Askar, he added.
“In the next few years we want to establish more hospitals,” said Dr Al Hamer.
“We are expanding steadily, it’s a must to do this.
“Primary healthcare is also expanding in the coming years – now there are 23 health centres, but there will be 28 by the beginning of next year.
“We are hoping to get more technology in an intelligent patient filing.
“We are hoping to have the entire health system connected through this system to have an intelligent healthcare system.
“Then we will move into pharmacies and prevent abuse of drugs and so on.”
Dr Al Hamer revealed the Health Ministry’s plans during an official visit to the American Mission Hospital (AMH), Manama, yesterday.
The Health Minister praised the work of all private hospitals and healthcare facilities in Bahrain.
“There are 12 private hospitals in Bahrain and what we hope to see is that they will continue to provide higher services both in quality and highly specialised services,” said Dr Al Hamer.
“Today the government is providing many services and we would like to see more private hospitals and specialised ones because we would like to market Bahrain as a centre of excellence.
“No one will come to us from the Gulf unless we have quality services, unique facilities and specialised services – this is how I see it for the future.”
Dr Al Hamer praised AMH for its hard work in becoming the first accredited hospital in Bahrain.
He said the BDF Hospital had followed AMH in pursuing the Australian model of accreditation, while the Health Ministry was looking to the Canadian accreditation model and would be re-assessed in December.
Gulf Daily