King Abdullah to Inaugurate Makkah Hospital Complex

MAKKAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will be Sponsoring the Inauguration Ceremony of King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah and the opening of Mina Al-Wadi Hospital in Mina on Sunday. The  hospital will provide medical service to the residents of the holy city of Makkah and to pilgrims and visitors round the year.

“This royal sponsorship magnifies the keeness of the Saudi Leadership to provide consummate health care to the citizens and to the guests of God and is also a reflection of the great attention the government gives to the health services,” Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said in a press statement.

He expressed thanks and gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for sponsoring the occasion and for honoring the ministry and its staff.

The minister said the giant King Abdullah Medical City is a specialized referral facility and the third medical city in the Kingdom after King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh and King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Dammam.

He explained that the City was built over an 800,000-Square Metre area with the National Project for Integrated Health Care, through which the Ministry was endeavoring to provide high-quality health services. He said the city had 1,500 beds, including 500 beds in the specialist referral hospital.

Rabeeah said the specialist referral hospital consisted of five stories with 10 operating theaters and a modern radiology department. He also said the maternity and children’s section had 500 beds.

Sick pilgrims

The Ministry of Health transferred 346 pilgrims who were hospitalized in Makkah to similar facilities in Arafat Wednesday to give them the opportunity of performing the key Haj ritual of standing at Arafat on Thursday.

Speaking from Mina to Arab News, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Al-Mirghalani said: “We are happy that we were able to help these pilgrims who came all the way from their own countries to perform their pilgrimage.”

He added that these pilgrims are patients who have been admitted to hospitals in Makkah for minor ailments. He said the patients were moved from three hospitals in Makkah in a convoy of three medical vans. During the transfer, they were supported with a team of doctors and required equipment to facilitate a safe journey to the destination. Under the transfer program, 24 pilgrims from Madinah hospitals were also brought to a hospital located at Arafat.

“The pilgrims were so happy that they were getting an opportunity to be at Arafat on the auspicious day,” Al-Mirghalani said.