Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry is currently evaluating bids for the construction contracts to build mental hospitals at two separate locations in the kingdom.

Each hospital will have 500 beds, with one planned to be located in Taif and the other in Jeddah, both located in the kingdom’s Western Province. Contractors submitted a price for each hospital in mid-December, so the client might award both to one contractor or award each hospital as separate packages.

The hospitals are the latest of a number of major medical projects that Riyadh is moving ahead with in an effort to cope with the increasing pressures of rapid population growth on its current healthcare system.

In late December, contractors submitted bids for the estimated $2.5bn King Abdullah Medical City project, which will serve the cities of Jeddah and Mecca.

Located 28 kilometres from Mecca and 56km from Jeddah, the development will include hospital buildings, research centres, administration buildings and a housing community, with a total built-up area of nearly 1 million square metres. The medical buildings will have a total built-up area of 605,869 sq m, the medical service facilities 43,098 sq m, the non-medical units 214,456 sq m and the utilities serving the development 53,840 sq m.

The medical buildings will involve a tertiary care hospital and research centre with 1,000 beds, comprising a main hospital with 850 beds and a rehabilitation centre with 150 beds. The main hospital will have oncology, neurology, cardiology and specialised surgery departments.

A team of US-based RTKL and the local Saudi Diyar is the project engineer. The client representative is King Abdullah Medical City. The project is one of several medical cities the Saudi government is planning.