Dubai: Al Maktoum Hospital, which stopped offering medical services on Tuesday, will be turned into a museum.
However, work on turning the emirate's oldest hospital into a museum is unlikely to go forward until the authority charged with doing so is up and running, Gulf News has learnt.
The 57-year-old Al Maktoum Hospital, which officially stopped its final service - conducting medical fitness tests - yesterday, is supposed to become a museum containing old photos and medical equipment used in its heyday. In May last year, Gulf News reported Dubai Municipality would take over its conservation.
Transition
Saeed Al Naboudah of the new Dubai Culture and Arts Authority told Gulf News the authority was taking charge of the project.
"The project is sort of in-between now. The Architectural Heritage Department at the municipality is shifting to the Culture Authority and until then we don't have much information," he said.
He added the transition would likely be finalised by the end of the month.
Al Maktoum Hospital was Dubai's first. It was built in 1951 and continued its development projects from 1952 to 1972 under the directives of the late Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
Being the first hospital in the area, Maktoum Hospital was the place people went for vaccinations, minor operations and the treatment of ailments. The first director was a Dr MacKolly, a sergeant in the British Royal Air Force.
