Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia needs to set up around 20,000 hospital beds by 2035 in a bid to address the rapid growth of its population, a recent report has showed.
The biggest Arab economy suffers a shortage in healthcare facilities in both the Holy and economic cities, according to Knight Frank’s recent report.
The kingdom suffered a gap of 14,000 beds in 2016 with expectations to wide to 40,000 beds by 2035, according to the global average of bed density.
“Over the next decade, population dynamics are forecast to shift with a significant increase in the population over 40 [million]. This indicates an expected increase in the burden of lifestyle diseases and the associated co-morbidities which would trigger an upsurge in demand for highly specialised medical and surgical care in the kingdom.” Gireesh Kumar, senior manager of healthcare at Knight Frank, said.
