The Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG) has won a contract to build the first phase of a cutting-edge hospital and research centre in Dubai intended to boost medical tourism.
The Fakeeh Academic Medical Centre (FAMC) will be the first "smart hospital" in the Gulf region, with robotic surgery and automated medication dispensing, HLG said in announcing the win this week.
In a contract valued at $127.4m (AED468), HLG will build phase 1 of FAMC, a 150-bed, state-of-the-art hospital at the economic zone called Dubai Silicon Oasis. Work starts immediately and is set to be finished in October 2017.
Artist’s render of the Fakeeh Academic Medical Centre in Dubai (Habtoor Leighton Group)
Phase 2 of the project, due to finish in 2019, will add 150 more beds and a research-focused university. The estimated cost of the complete FAMC is $272m.
Launching the FAMC scheme earlier this year the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said the emirate planned to attract 500,000 medical tourists a year and that FAMC would help make Dubai a "leading destination for medical tourism".
The hospital’s "smart" component includes IT-enabled patient rooms fitted out with health-monitoring technology that aims to cut paperwork and give nurses more time to focus on patient care.
HLG is 45% owned by Australia’s Cimic Group, which was known as Leighton Holdings until April this year.
