US-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has unveiled its designs for the new 838-bed Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi.

The medical city will cover a total area of 3 million square feet and will combine a general hospital with a trauma centre, and women’s and pediatric hospitals. The central area of the proposed medical campus will contain restaurants, retail and education spaces. Construction work on the scheme is scheduled to start in 2013.

The Sheikh Khalifa Medical City is one of several major healthcare projects planned or under way in Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) recently received bids for the contract to build an estimated AED2.6bn ($708m) hospital in Al-Ain. The contract involves building a 688-bed hospital, which covers a total area of 358,000 square metres.

Mubadala Healthcare, a unit of Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Development Company, is currently developing the 364-bed Cleveland Clinic hospital on Sowwah Island, between Reem Island and the Mina Zayed area of Abu Dhabi. The joint venture of the local/Belgian Six Construct Abu Dhabi and South Korea’s Samsung Corporation was awarded the estimated AED4.7bn contract to build the hospital in March 2010.