WORK to revamp an overcrowded 25-year-old health centre in the Northern Governorate is set to begin early next year, it has been announced.
The Northern Municipal Council has reached an agreement with the Health Ministry to revamp and build a second floor at the Kuwait Health Centre in Malkiya.
Engineers have estimated the cost of the project to be around BD2 million, including new equipment.
This is much cheaper than demolishing and rebuilding the centre, which would cost around BD3m without considering new equipment.
If the decision was taken to knock it down, it would have meant that the 30,000 residents of Hamala, Demistan, Karzakan, Malkiya, Saddad and Shahrakan would be divided between the Kanoo Health Centre in Hamad Town and Budaiya Health Centre in Budaiya, which are already congested.
“To be honest we were presented with two choices: to revamp the health centre or knock it down,” said area councillor Ali Mansoor.
“We chose the revamp because we believe it will be a cost-saving approach and won’t create any hassle to constituency nine’s 30,000 residents.
“Engineers have assessed the current structure and found it acceptable for the revamp, which will just cost BD1m for the additional storey and BD1 for new equipment to fill it up.”
Mr Mansoor said that the ministry had announced years ago that health centres should not serve more than 20,000 people.
“We here have 50pc more than that allowed and ministry officials have agreed that something has to be done to fix the situation, which we hope will be possible with the expansion that will be carried out early next year,” he said.
“But another problem will surface and that’s people being moved to the new Louzy Housing Town nearby Karzakan, with 3,000 homes and 10,000 people expected to arrive to the area.
“That problem has either to be incorporated in the revamp designs or have people living in the new town moved to another nearby hospital because then we will end up with the same overcrowding problems five years from now.”
Mr Mansoor said that the existing health centre was in an appalling state and lacked numerous facilities.
“It doesn’t have an X-ray room, it has only one dentistry room that is called a clinic,” he said.
“The child care section and pharmacy are smaller than a toilet in one of the new malls today.
“The place has few doctors and nurses that instead of getting the service in one hour, people are being forced to stay for up to five.
“I can’t blame the poor staff because they are doing their best, but the place should have been looked at five years ago, before the population expansion that has led to the problems we are forced to tackle now.”
Gulf Daily