Bahrain is to get its own BD9 million ($23.8 million) organ transplant centre.

Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has approved the project in principle, said a report in our sister publication Gulf Daily News.

The centre will initially have facilities for kidney, liver and pancreas transplants, said Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) chairman of surgery Dr Kadem Zabar.

"The details will now be worked out and the centre will take a few years to come up, but we are well and truly on our way now," he added.

SMC consultant vascular and renal transplant surgeon Dr Sadiq Abdullah said Bahrain had been doing kidney transplants for 12 years, but other transplants were more complex.

Dr Abdullah said they would initially start with pancreas transplants and 'graduate' to liver and other organs.

The idea of such a centre was first mooted two years ago when it was revealed that a Gulf family had already pledged a BD1.5m donation.- TradeArabia News Service