Kuwait’s Health Ministry is expected to tender the first contract of its programme to renovate and expand nine existing hospitals in the country by the end of April.

Contractors had originally expected to receive tender documents for the Al-Amiri hospital renovation by the end of February, but the release of the documents has been delayed.

The ministry prequalified about 10 contractors for the construction programme towards the end of last year.

The proposed extension to the Al-Amiri hospital will consist of a tower with up to 10 storeys, a basement level and a four-storey podium. The development will cover a total area of about 90,000 square metres and will contain 65 speciality clinics, physiotherapy department, laboratories, radiology department and a pharmacy. The extension will increase the capacity of the existing hospital by 360 beds.

In October last year, the ministry awarded a KD1.8m ($6.2m) contract to the US/local team of Hill International and System Development & Project Management (SDPM) to provide project and construction management services for the expansion of the eight hospitals.

The Health Ministry’s hospital expansion programme is part of Kuwait’s plans to complete $8bn of hospital construction projects by 2016 at it seeks to meet the healthcare demands of its growing population.

As the Health Ministry prepares to tender the construction package for its renovation programme, the country’s Public Works Ministry has approved plans to build eight new hospitals in the next five years.

The ministry is planning to build four hospitals at the Al-Sabah medical area in Shuwaikh, which is located just west of Kuwait City. The Al-Razi hospital, the Physical Medicine hospital and the Ibn Sina hospital will each have 500 beds, while the planned maternity hospital will have 600 beds.

As part of its plans to improve the provision of public health services in Kuwait, the ministry is also planning to build an 800-bed hospital at Al-Jahra, a 600-bed unit at Al-Amiri and a 1,000-bed hospital at Al-Adan (MEED 10:12:10) .