Building for parking at SMC soon: Al Saleh

Manama : The House of Representatives meeting held yesterday   witnessed healthy discussions on construction of a new building for parking at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) and problems faced by kidney patients. MP Nabeel Al Balooshi raised the need for a parking lot at SMC which faces heavy traffic congestion on a daily basis.  “The request to establish the building has been delayed since the mid 1990s when Shura Council members proposed to establish the multi-storey car parks back then,” Al Balushi said, adding even small private clinics have provided such facilities to their clients and patients, while a reputed public hospital such as SMC can’t have one.Replying to the query raised by MP Nabeel Al Balooshi, the Health Minister Faeqa Al Saleh assured that work on the long-awaited building will begin by the middle of this year in cooperation with Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, a government-owned company

 “After all these years, I’m here to confirm that the project will begin this year. It’s a priority to the ministry, considering its importance to SMC’s patients and staff,” Al Saleh said. 

“We are now in the phase of finalising the designs and blueprints of the project. We were informed that the project will start by May or June this year and will take 15 months to be completed. The ministry is working with the private sector to construct a second car park building at the complex,” Al Saleh added.

Home dialysis 

Questions were raised at the meeting on kidney failure disease in the Kingdom. 

To a question by MP Hamad Al Dossary, the health minister confirmed that 80 patients are receiving peritoneal dialysis at home and that the ministry provides them with the devices needed for the process.