10 HOSPITALS ON ANVIL

Plans are in place for starting ten new hospitals, to provide a total of 700 hospital beds, according to Dr Waleed Khalifa Al Manea, Assistant Undersecretary for Hospitals for the Health ministry. This will include a National Centre of Diabetes in Muharraq, initiated to check the prevalence of diabetes in the Kingdom.

The largest private hospital in Bahrain still has less than a number of 100 beds, which is very small in number when comparing with the rest of the world. As per the plans, four hospitals will come in Muharraq, two in northern and four in southern region of Bahrain.

He was speaking at the MEED Bahrain Infrastructure & Finance Forum 2015 held under the patronage of Minister of Finance Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.

He added in five years, all the medical records from the hospitals in the Kingdom will be made available online.

He also said, “the major challenges faced by the Kingdom are demographic changes in which kids and elderly constitute higher percentage of the total population compared to the employable adults. The increase in the prevalence of chronic noncommunicable diseases is also a worrying aspect”

Another major struggle the health sector has to face is the financial constraint, which calls for more contribution from corporate sector and the general public, in the form of hiked up fees for hospital services. Insurance programs and tie-ups with global bodies are also considered to tide over the financial constraints, he added.