Construction has started on King’s College Hospital, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with the hospital scheduled to open its doors to patients in the second half of 2023.
It builds on the King’s College Hospital Dubaiand is expected to be the first of many similar projects providing Ashmore Group and King’s College Hospital London the platform for further growth in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Bugshan Group is also part of this venture which the state said would help achieve the Kingdom’s 2030 vision in the healthcare sector..
The site covers an area of more than 32,000 square meters on King Abdulaziz Road and will hold a capacity of 150 beds in the first phase.
The hospital will be staffed with over 1,000 healthcare professionals, sourced from London, KSA and wider region, delivering care in line with the tested clinical pathways of King’s College Hospital London.
Clinical innovation and smart technologies will be a prominent feature at the hospital, with 40 medical and surgical specialties and four centres of excellence in the following Institutes: women’s health, metabolic diseases and bariatric surgery, orthopaedics and heart and vascular.
The patient-centred care model, staffing and services will all be fully integrated with King’s College Hospital, London, designed to address a range of complex and critical care requirements unique to the residents and communities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The London and Jeddah hospitals will share knowledge from established King’s research centres in the UK, encourage further collaborations between physicians in both countries, and enable seamless patient journeys between the Jeddah and London hospitals to reduce the need for patients to travel to the UK.
Ahsan Ali, head of healthcare private equity at Ashmore, said: “Following the success of King’s hospital and clinics in Dubai, entering Saudi Arabia marks a new chapter for King’s and Ashmore, with the first project being a landmark hospital in Jeddah.
“We expect to follow this with the establishment of similar King’s branded facilities, including specialized centres, in other parts of the Kingdom.”
Sir Hugh Taylor, chairman of King’s College Hospital, London, said: ”We are delighted that King’s, in partnership with Ashmore, is expanding its footprint to Saudi Arabia, following on from the success of our hospital and clinics in the UAE.”
The UK government’s Department for International Trade (DIT) added: “The proposed Jeddah development will greatly benefit from having an NHS partner – King’s College Hospital – which will support the Kingdom’s Healthcare transformation and allow for valuable expertise and knowledge transfer to help shape the healthcare provision. This will be the first hospital in The Kingdom to partner with the National Health Service.”