Apex Medical Group (AMG), a part of top Saudi conglomerate AlJoaib Holding, said it has reached a major milestone with the completion of the market feasibility study of its mammoth Medical City project in Oman.

Kane Healthcare Consulting Group in consortium with Ernst & Young as financial advisors and Atkins as master planners completed the market, operational, regulatory and financial feasibility study of the project.

Spread over 500,000 sq m of land by the Arabian ocean in the Omani city of Salalah, the Medical City is being developed at the site of integrated medical tourism complex donated by the Oman Ministry of Tourism.

Announcing this on Tuesday, AMG president Dr Abdullah Al Joaib said the project will consist of a chain of multi-specialty 530 bed tertiary care hospital, transplant and dialysis centre of excellence, rehabilitation centre of excellence and medical & diagnostic centre of excellence.

The healthcare complex will be integrated with the support services of the healthcare resort, wellness centre, a 4-star medical hotel, a neighbourhood mall and recreational facilities, patient and staff accommodation and education complex consisting of medical and nursing college and research and development centre.

The practice leader of Kane Healthcare Consulting and an appointed project director for AMG, Dr Naeema Aziz, a seasoned healthcare subject matter expert, led this feasibility study consortium, said Dr Al Joaib.

The consortium has conducted a very substantial feasibility study aligning clinical programs with Middle East regional organ transplantation, rehabilitation and other advanced level tertiary care multispecialty treatment services needs and underpinning decision-making with financial modelling.

Dr Aziz said the purpose of conducting the comprehensive feasibility study in a consortium is to bring together the collective expertise of professionals who have years of practice experience in the Middle East and with other healthcare systems around the world, and have been leaders and pioneers in starting new hospitals and medical schools and in nurturing healthcare systems on multiple continents.

She pointed out that many public and private hospital promoters and developers across the GCC usually make decisions of developing the projects based on financial feasibility and concentrate primarily on bricks and mortar issues.

However, the AMG has taken a new approach in the development of their flagship medical city by utilizing the integrated expertise of this consortium to conduct a comprehensive feasibility that can laid a foundation for the ground work of building design and construction that will start soon, she added.

Dr Aziz said that the detailed financial analysis of all components of the medicaal city reveals that it yields a positive project and equity IRR.

Ashar Nazim, director and head of Islamic Financial Services at E&Y in Bahrain, said: “Besides the fact that the project will bring pioneering medical and surgical facilities to the Middle East, the most exciting and challenging aspect is the sponsor’s desire to make it fully compliant with medical ethics and in accordance with dictates of Islam by setting up a Waqf (trust) for providing free treatment and education to poor and needy families.'

The project sponsor and promoter Dr Abdullah said that the completion of the comprehensive feasibility study by the consortium has laid the foundation for “Building An Enduring Institution From The Ground Up.”-TradeArabia News Service