Work will soon start on a new Dh290-million ($79 million) expansion plan for Dubai Hospital aimed at boosting its facilities and help meet the growing demand for its medical services from within and outside the country.

The approval for the project was given by Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and President of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA).

The first phase of the expansion, which will cost around Dh100 million ($22.7 million), will include a six-storey building for specialised outpatient clinics.

The tower, which will be spread across a 17,800-sq-m area, will include 142 specialty clinics, about three-fold the current number of specialty clinics (48 clinics) that the hospital currently offers.

The ground floor will provide diagnostic services including laboratory and radiology, as well as a pharmacy. The first floor includes 21 endocrinology and diabetes clinics and 13 clinics for rheumatism and immunology.

The second floor consists of six internal medicine clinics, 17 urology clinics, and other multi-disciplinary clinics. The third floor includes six cardiology clinics and 10 blood diseases clinics.

The fourth floor includes 12 clinics for obstetrics and gynecology, 13 pediatric clinics. The fifth floor includes 19 clinics for ophthalmology and 12 administration offices and finally the sixth and last floor includes 25 dental clinics.

In the second phase, DHA will add lecture halls and workshops with the latest technology besides a parking lot that will include more than 1,200 parking slots for visitors.

Unveiling the expansion plans, Humaid Al Qatami, the chairman of the board and director-general of DHA, said: "The expansion will provide a dedicated area for outpatient services, which in turn will reduce the waiting time at the hospital, provide enhanced outpatient clinics for a number of medical specialties and thus help further improve high-quality patient-centric care, which is the core of our Dubai Health Strategy 2016-2021.”

"It is aimed at ensuring that we provide high-quality specialised and super-specialised care to our population and visitors alike," he added.-TradeArabia News Service