As a result of the success of the Dallah Hospital, its proprietor, the Dallah Healthcare Company, is expanding its infrastructure and building an 80-bed extension.
"We are also constructing Dallah Tower, which will be a seven-floor facility for outpatients," says Professor Al-Fagih. "And, in addition to that, we are extending our training programs for medical personnel."
The expanded facility will be known as the Dallah Hospital Medical City. Asked whether it would include a college, Professor Al-Fagih said he hoped that it would.
"We have established a non-profit organization called Allied Medical Specialities to give diplomas and, soon, bachelor degrees in medical specialities. Unfortunately, however, government bureaucracy is delaying the licensing of such projects."
Professor Al-Fagih says the curriculum for the proposed college was the same as that of the Loma Linda University (LLU) curriculum, which, he says, is much more advanced than that of any other educational institution in Saudi Arabia. "But the government told us that it was too sophisticated and that we had to simplify it. It then took us another year to hire someone from the King Saud University, at considerable expense, to make our curriculum simpler in order to get certification, and that has delayed the project."
The professor emphasizes that Dallah was not prepared to compromise the standards of its training. "So what we've done is to make our university an extension of the campus of Loma Linda University so that our students, when they graduate from here, can go right to the U.S. and practice there like any American graduate," he says.
Is this a first in Saudia Arabia?
"Absolutely," says Professor Al-Fagih. "Such a relationship does not exist anywhere else. I myself have been joint professor of cardio-pulmonary sciences at Loma Linda University."
The high standards demanded by Dallah have ensured that many of its departments are recognized in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom, as well as by the Saudi Council for Health Specialities.
"It has taken us a long time to get where we are," says Professor Al-Fagih, "and we are very proud of the partnership with LLU."
