Work on a long-awaited centre specialising in sickle cell disease and other blood disorders will start today, the GDN has learnt.
A 90-bed haematology centre is being built at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC), which has repeatedly come under fire for its handling of sickle cell patients. Campaigners yesterday welcomed the news after demanding a dedicated treatment facility for years.
Twenty-six patients have died from sickle cell complications this year and it is hoped the new centre will improve the quality of care offered to patients.
“It is high time we were taken care of professionally,” Bahrain Society for Sickle Cell Anaemia Patient Care chairman Zakareya Ebrahim Alkadhem told the GDN yesterday.
“We are always given the feeling we are a burden on the system, but we are as normal as anyone and need to be treated in that way.”
The BD2.5 million, four-storey facility will treat all patients suffering from blood diseases.
However, Health Ministry senior general engineer Hussain Al Hussaini said it would be of particular help to those suffering from sickle cell disease.
“The old building at the site is being demolished from today and once demolition is complete, the new unit will start to take shape,” said Mr Al Hussaini, who is spearheading the project.
“We expect it to be ready by mid-2012,” he added.
Departments
The new unit, opposite Al Fateh Specialist Centre at the SMC, will include accident and emergency and outpatient departments as well as wards for men, women and children.
It is one of several projects planned, including a critical care unit, modern central pharmacy, morgue expansion and a police station.
The new centre will be connected to the main SMC building by a walkway.
Campaigners have claimed negligence and bed shortages have contributed to the large number of sickle cell deaths in Bahrain.
MANDEEP SINGH
Gulf Daily