PM lays foundation stone for teaching hospital in Karbala

KARBALA / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki laid on Friday the foundation stone for the first hospital in Karbala in more than 40 years, to be carried out by a Turkish form in two and half years at a cost of $150 million, according to the province’s health department chief. “The prime minister, who was accompanied by the ministers of health and reconstructions as well as the representative of the Turkish firm Universal, has laid the cornerstone for the Karbala Teaching Hospital, which has 400 beds,” Dr. Alaa Hammoudi told IraqiNews.com news agency. Universal, a Turkish firm specialized in medical services and hospital construction, is to provide up-to-date medical equipment to the hospital. “This is the first hospital ever built in Karbala since the al-Hussein Public Hospital, which was set up in the 1970s,” said Hammoudi, adding the Turkish company has pledged to provide the hospital with state-of-the-art cancer treatment equipment that are found in only four countries: the United States, Germany, France and Turkey. The holy Shiite city of Karbala lies 110 km southwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (P) 1