A new 100-bed multi-specialty hospital being built in A’ali will be called the King Hamad American Mission Hospital (AMH) to recognise the support His Majesty has shown to the not-for-profit health providers.
The announcement was made at the annual gala dinner to honour the organisations that supported the 22nd AMH Island Classic charity golf tournament held over three days at His Majesty King Hamad’s private golf course in Sakhir.
The state-of-the-art facility is set to open in 2022. “Work on this project is due to commence in the next couple of months,” said AMH chief medical officer and chief executive Dr George Cheriyan, who took over leadership of the operation exactly 10 years to the month.
“We are hugely indebted to His Majesty for making this possible. The hospital will be named after His Majesty as the King Hamad AMH.”
As reported recently by GDN, the new hospital is set to become the first eco-friendly facility in Bahrain after signing a $1 million agreement to install a solar system on its premises.
AMH has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to partner with The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Bahrain (RCSI) to provide a clinical teaching facility for medical and nursing through the new hospital.
Guests at Sunday night’s gala dinner, staged at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Residence and Spa in Manama, also heard that last year’s tournament attracted guests from the USA and one of the players donated $600,000 towards the building of an auditorium in the new hospital. The DeWitt family’s ‘generous donation’ is believed to be the single biggest received from a player in the tournament’s history.
All funds raised from this year’s event will go towards AMH’s community outreach programme which stems from the 120-year-old original mission of the hospital’s founding fathers.
Its programmes nowadays range from the identification of chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, special medical care for orphans and the blind, children with special needs and disabilities, as well as screening for breast and colon cancer. AMH is also heavily involved in healthcare education within the community and offers general healthcare checks at centres for the elderly and labour camps.
The Reformed Church in America co-owns the enterprise, which runs under a government ministry. There are currently four facilities, in Amwaj, Manama, Saar and Riffa and, when the new hospital opens in A’ali, more than 1,000 staff members will wear the AMH badge.
