UAE’s first children’s hospital well on the way to completion

The Al Jalila Children's Speciality Hospital in Dubai is due to open in 2013.

The country's first hospital dedicated to paediatric care is more than a third of the way towards completion, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) said today.

With 38 per cent of construction having taken place since last November, Al Jalila Children's Speciality Hospital in Dubai is on course to open next year – several years after the initially envisaged completion date of last year, according to the DHA.

Due to stand alongside Latifa Hospital, the facility will provide care for infants and children up to the age of 16.

Al Jalila Children's Speciality Hospital will provide 200 beds, a fifth of which will be for patients in the intensive-care unit. The Dhs700?million building will also include six dialysis facilities, 20 healing centres, 12 training rooms, eight operating theatres and 30 departments.

It will provide state-of-the-art care for children across the country, said Qadhi Saeed Al Murooshid, the director general of the DHA. "Upon completion, the hospital will be the first of its kind in the region, offering super-speciality and multi-spectrum paediatric care. It will provide all necessary paediatric services under one roof for the children of the UAE and the region."

As well as aiding the UAE's younger population the hospital's design has won plaudits for being energy efficient, winning last year's Hospital Build and Infrastructure Award for the Best Sustainable Hospital Project.