Dubai-based MBF Group, a progressive and diversified group, has announced an agreement with Ibchez Housing and Nixon to establish an integrated medical city within the 100,000-sq-m Gulberg Greens in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

The agreement will include the construction of a hospital that will provide medical services at international standards, reported Emirates news agency Wam.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Faisal Al Qassimi, founder and owner of the MBF Group, said that the project will include a 400-bed university hospital that will offer the most advanced levels of healthcare services. The medical city will also feature the country’s first medical mall, therapeutic and recreational areas, a regional cardiology centre, and an orthopaedic centre, he added.

He noted that the city will include a nursing college and is expected to serve some one million patients and clients on a monthly basis. There is a need for such advanced hospitals to serve Pakistan’s growing population, he stressed.

Al Qassimi pointed out that the investment provided for the medical city has reached $970 million, while noting that its land has been purchased, as well as the desire of all parties to complete the project on time, in a bid to answer the growing demand for medical services in Islamabad and provide specialist health services that are in short supply.

He added that the group will manage the city’s 1,000 medical, technical and administrative staff, who will all be Pakistanis, and is responsible for providing medical equipment and beds.

Nixon will represent the group in Pakistan, and the medical city will be their first joint project, he said.