741-bed public hospital opens in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi One of the UAE’s largest hospitals, the Shaikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC), started welcoming patients this week.

The 741-bed facility spans 312,000 square metres in the capital’s Al Mafraq area, and it has begun to accept outpatients in its cardiology, adult neurology, ENT, ophthalmology and gastrointestinal clinics.

The new hospital has four towers, each with five to seven medical floors, as well as a two-storey outpatient building and an administrative building. The facility is run by public healthcare provider, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha).

“The plans for this brand new healthcare facility were developed in 2011, and its opening is a milestone for Abu Dhabi’s health sector,” said Saeed Al Kuwaiti, head of the activation committee at SSMC.

Other departments

By the end of this month, other outpatient clinics are expected to become operational, including urology, surgery, infectious diseases, nephrology, internal medicine, pulmonary and sleep medicine and endocrinology. In January 2020, all inpatients from Mafraq Hospital will be transferred to the SSMC.”

During a tour of the hospital, senior doctors had explained that the SSMC will specialise in trauma care and burns treatment, just like Mafraq Hospital.

Trauma and burns care

“At Al Mafraq, we treat between 180 to 200 trauma patients a month, and 60 per cent of our surgeries are trauma-related. At SSMC, we will continue to see just as many trauma patients, if not more. The hospital plans to be certified as a Centre of Excellence for trauma care,” said Dr Ateq Al Musabi, deputy chief medical officer and chief of surgery and trauma, at SSMC.

When fully operational, SSMC will have 18 operating theatres and 145 beds in its Intensive Care Unit, including 26 for newborns in intensive care. It will also have the first robotic surgery unit in an Abu Dhabi public hospital, equipped with a Da Vinci surgical system.

Vincy Stanley and her seven-year-old daughter were some of the first visitors to the SSMC.

“We live in Mussaffah, and follow up on our daughter’s care at Mafraq Hospital. This time, we were asked to come to SSMC for her ophthalmology check-up. The new hospital was so spacious, and my daughter loved the play area there. We were also delighted because there was hardly any wait time to see the doctor,” Stanley said.

Built to replace Mafraq Hospital, one of Abu Dhabi’s oldest public healthcare facilities, the SSMC boasts a number of new treatment units, including a motility lab, a sleep clinic and advanced paediatric care units.