DAMMAM — Prince Saud Bin Naif, emir of the Eastern Province, laid the foundation stone for the Batterjee Medical City in Dammam, recently. It is one of the largest private healthcare projects in the region. Sobhi Batterjee, chairman of the Middle East Healthcare Company — Meahco (Saudi German Hospital Group) and also of Bait Al Batterjee medical Co. Ltd. said encouragement and support of the emir and other senior government officials has further reinforced the group's commitment to healthcare and serve the regional community while creating benchmarks for healthcare facilities. He explained that the project will be built on an area of 90,000 sq. meters and will be implemented in four stages at a total estimated cost of SR4 billion. He added that the first stage will be the establishment of a 150-bed private hospital owned by Middle East Healthcare Co - Meahco (Saudi German Hospitals) with state-of-the-art medical equipment covering all specialties in line with the global best medical practices. There also will be a staff housing within the complex. This first phase of the project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019 with operations commencing in the second quarter of the same year. The second phase will be the establishment of the Batterjee Medical College, the third phase will be the establishment of specialty centers to be decided as per the market needs, and the fourth phase will be a mixed use tower buildings, hotel, shopping center of international standards. Batterjee said that the building area of the medical city will be 550,000 sq. meters, and when fully functional will provide 8,000 jobs to Saudis in various fields and will provide high-quality specialized services to citizens and residents in the whole Eastern Province, as well as patients from Bahrain and Kuwait. He said that the private sector is committed to support and contribute toward enforcing the Kingdom's Vision 2030 under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman.
