Bahrain's second major public hospital will accommodate up to 200,000 patients a year, feature 312 beds, a training centre and world-class services, said a top government official.

 The King Hamad University Hospital (KHUH) was officially opened yesterday during a ceremony held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad in the presence of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister, ministers, diplomats and VIPs.

The 64,000 sq m state-of-the-art facility in Busaiteen is part of plans to fulfil the objectives of Bahrain's Vision 2030, said Minister of State for Defence General Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa.

'Between 80,000 to 100,000 outpatients, another 15-20,000 in-patients and 80,000 accident and emergency patients can be accommodated every year,' he added.

'In addition, the hospital will be a world-class training facility, also being a teaching hospital for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

'The hospital had to undergo significant renovation and refurbishment before it has opened. People had to wait for a long time but now they can benefit from its high-tech facilities.'

KHUH chief executive officer Brigadier Dr Shaikh Salman bin Ateytala Al Khalifa re-announced plans to set up a National Oncology Centre as well as a medical research centre within the premises.

'These two new facilities will greatly enhance services being provided to the people of Bahrain,' he said during the opening.

He said most of the hospital's facilities were already operational and others would be opened gradually.

'We have had trial runs of most of the hospital facilities and they have been operating well,' he said. 'We are now looking forward to opening other departments.'

Brig Dr Shaikh Salman said the latest medical technologies and advancements, including CT scan and X-Ray, were available and more equipment would be installed in the future.

The hospital's outpatient department was launched in December and its radiology department last month.

The first surgery was carried out on January 1 when Dr Shaikh Salman performed a tympanoplasty procedure to repair a Muharraq resident's eardrum.

It also held a trial run for inpatients in December when five volunteers spent 72 hours in the hospital to test out its facilities and services to ensure everything went well.

Our sister publication the Gulf Daily News earlier reported the hospital had to have a complete overhaul after serious flaws and shoddy workmanship was discovered in the original plans, which led to a delay in the completion of the project, originally slated to be up and running in 2008 after work started in April 2006.

The faults were discovered when the Works Ministry handed over the operations of the KHUH to the BDF Hospital.

The original designers failed to take into consideration specific requirements needed, which meant everything from toilets and washrooms to closets and electrical wiring had to be re-designed and five lifts also had to be installed.

A parliament investigation committee has also been set up to investigate alleged corruption in the awarding of tenders and contracts. – TradeArabia News Service