Abu Dhabi: A large donation was offered to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to build a 913,000-square-foot cardiovascular and critical care tower in honour of Shaikh Zayed.
President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan offered the Johns Hopkins Hospital the donation last year and the two-12-story towers named and dedicated to the late president are expected to be complete by December 2010 and operating by spring of 2011.
Partnership
The tower consists of 355 patient beds, operating rooms, and a teaching hospital with all-digital imaging and wireless voice communications available in the whole building.
The gift is among a series of connections between Johns Hopkins and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
It includes their partnership with the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) through the recent management of the Corniche Hospital in Abu Dhabi, the only specialist maternity hospital in the UAE capital, and the third hospital in Abu Dhabi to be affiliated with the Johns Hopkins group since 2006.
A partnership was also recently signed with the Health Authority Abu Dhabi (HAAD) which is now offering a dedicated Masters and Doctoral programme to help carefully selected Emirati officials become future leaders in the healthcare sector across the emirate.
"The twin aims are to develop the skills of UAE nationals and to further strengthen the continuing improvement to our health system," said Dr Ahmad Mubarak Al Mazrouei, Chairman of HAAD.
Meanwhile, Dr Heitham T. Hassoun, a vascular and endovascular surgeon from Johns Hopkins, told Gulf News that an investment in a similar cardiovascular facility is needed in the emirate.
"The Zayed Tower is a noble donation that cardiovascular patients in Baltimore will benefit from. The donation was timely and necessary. However I feel the same project is needed across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi since cardio problems are clearly arising among the younger population," he said.
"Due to a sedentary style of living an increasing number of people suffer from cardiovascular diseases. It has become number one killer disease after road accidents in the UAE," said Dr Abdul Razzak Alkaddour, Consultant Cardiologist, Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC).
