NMC Health, the Abu Dhabi-based private healthcare company, on Monday said it has gained approval from authorities in Saudi Arabia to build a new, specialist hospital in Jeddah.

The company said that the new, 220-bed Chronic Care Specialty Medical Center (CCSMC) in Jeddah is one of the first facilities of its kind in the kingdom that a non-Saudi company has gained permission to run.

NMC Health CEO Prasanth Manghat, said: “The 220-bed long-term care facility initiated operations with 50 beds, which will be fully committed to patients currently receiving short-term acute care from hospitals in Jeddah and its surrounding areas.

"The migration of patients will begin today. A phased increase of utilisation is planned, with [the] hospital projected to be at full capacity by H1 2019,” he added.

NMC Health has also agreed deals to buy two existing, multi-speciality hospitals in Saudi Arabia for about $40 million. It has bought a 60 percent stake in a 100-bed hospital in the southern city of Najran which opened last year, but has adjacent land available for further expansion, and it has bought 100 percent of a hospital in the northwestern city of Ha'il, which currently holds 60 beds and has plans under way to use existing land to expand to more than 100 beds.

NMC Health said that both of the hospitals it has bought are profitable, and that, along with the CCSMS project, they are expected to be earnings-enhancing from next year onwards.

The company also announced plans for a 170-bed hospital in Al Khobar in the kingdom's Eastern Province, which it said is expected to be operational by mid-2019.

The units acquired and the new-build project will be paid for through a combination of cash and available debt facilities, the company said.


© Zawya 2017