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American Mission Hospital (AMH) has officially unveiled its new clinic in Riffa which features state-of-the-art sports and rehabilitation facilities alongside its extensive range of medical services … with plans for further expansion revealed.
Patients living in the area will no longer have an arduous commute to the main hospital in Manama now that the 3,000sqm Riffa Medical and Dental Centre, located across from The Walk Bahrain’s retail and restaurant district in the Callidus Centre, has opened its doors.
Dr George Cheriyan, AMH’s chief medical officer and CEO, said: “I am very excited about the opening, especially because you could hear the buzz around it and people of Riffa are really excited too. It’s been a labour of love for more than a year in conceiving it and making it really happen.
“We have many patients who regularly travel into Manama from Riffa. The roads there are becoming more congested every day and there is little parking.
“The best option for us was to place our facilities closer to where our communities live … and Riffa is a big community.”
The ambulatory care centre, is AMH’s third medical facility offering medical care on an outpatient basis. The others are located in Saar and Amwaj Islands,
The new investment by the not-for-profit medical operation, includes general services such as family medicine, paediatrics, women’s health, ophthalmology, ENT, orthopaedics, dental, radiology, a pharmacy, a laboratory, dermatology and plastic surgery.
Riffa’s specialised services include an executive clinic, a wellness clinic, physiotherapy, pain management, sports medicine, osteopathy and an Olympic-sized pool for hydrotherapy.
Dr George added: “This is a wonderful first-class facility. The uniquely differentiating feature of this centre is the range of services provided such as the sports medicine clinic, the hydrotherapy and the fitness and wellness clinic is also a big part of our concept here.
“We have various services as well with a pharmacy, X-ray and everything else under one roof. It has been open for around 10 days now and already we have received many patients.”
The clinic is being run by a team of 90 doctors, nurses and support staff and headed by Dr Rabih Abouleila, with a focus on the wellness and preventative aspect of health care as well as the curative and treatment aspect of injuries and ailments for people of all ages.
The sports medical clinic will be run by Italian Dr Paolo Vaglio who is known for conducting spe-cialised clinics for top athletes and organisations including F1 teams, as well as La Liga football stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The clinic will be part of the centre’s wellness and physiotherapy offerings. A hydrotherapy pool will also be used for ‘wellness’ activities and related treatment, and should be up-and-running soon.
The new clinic in Riffa was officially launched last week by Supreme Council for Health chairman Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, in the presence of His Majesty the King’s Advisor for Youth and Sports Affairs Saleh bin Hindi. Also present at the event were American ambassador Justin Siberell, senior hospital officials, including board member Hall Delano Roosevelt, the grandson of a former US president and a leading Bahrain-based businessman, and other ambassadors and dignitaries.
AMH which has operated in the kingdom for more than a century and, as reported in GulfWeekly, has been recognised as ‘one of the best’ regional hospitals by the International Socrates Commit-tee. In addition, Dr George was honoured with a ‘Manager of the Year’ award by the same body.
The Reformed Church in America co-owns the enterprise, which runs under a government minis-try, and AMH is setting its sights on expanding further. Dr Cheriyan added: “We are looking at Hamad Town for our next ambulatory care centre and we might develop a hospital in the A’ali area as well. Our mission has always been to provide high quality care at an affordable price for all segments of the population.”
