Partnering opportunities for major Bahrain healthcare project

Regional companies operating in the healthcare sector are invited to express their interest in contributing to a major project in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The Dilmunia Health Island project is aimed at creating an exclusive health and wellness facility in Bahrain. It will be a 125 hectare island with a central Health District which will consist of a Wellness Hospital, Women and Children Hospital, Diagnostic Centre, Diabetes Centre, Nutrition Centre, Aesthetic Medicine Centre, Sports Medical Centre, Research Centre and Acute Hospital. Located around the healthcare facilities will be residential and commercial areas including hotels offering alternative therapies in their spas.

Dilmunia, being developed by the Ithmaar Development Company (IDC) and its partners, will be located very close to Bahrain International Airport, providing connectivity with the region as well as the rest of the world. Bahrain is also well connected to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is a potential large market for Dilmunia. Additional road links will provide added connectivity between Bahrain and Qatar within the next few years.

In addition to Dilmunia Health Island, IDC is in the process of forming a dedicated healthcare entity, Ithmaar Health. This will establish a network of outpatient and diagnostic facilities (Outpatient Medical Services – OMS) across the GCC countries, which will be linked to the Dilmunia Health District and other regional referral centres. There will be a total of 21 OMS facilities covering all the major cities of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. These OMS facilities will offer multi-specialty consultations with supporting laboratory and diagnostic services.

IDC is looking for partners to work with on the Dilmunia Health Island project. Some of the core competencies required of the partner include:

• Clinical care standards and protocols
• Hospital operational systems
• Human resource management and development
• Equipment planning and sourcing
• Information technology (medical and non-medical areas)
• Academic and research activities
• Facilities planning and design
• Business aspects of healthcare (e.g. strategic planning, feasibility studies, financial modelling, marketing etc).

Relevant healthcare businesses are invited to express interest in partnering with the IDC in:

• Developing/ co-developing the health district as an integrated health & wellness centre with its stated components;
• Providing technical expertise and related inputs with reference to the core competencies outlined above, in realising the vision of the health district;
• Operating the various health and wellness facilities in the health district.

The IDC wishes to gather a wide range of options, so at this stage is inviting expressions of interest only.

For further information on the Dilmunia Health Island project, including images of the proposal, please see the document: Dilmunia Health Island (pdf)

For information on the different partnership options and details of how to submit your expression of interest, please see the document: Dilmunia Invitation Letter (pdf)

Applications are invited until 15 August 2008.