A $60m 250-bed drug and alcohol addiction treatment centre will be built in the Saudi Arabian capital city of Riyadh.
The facility will be set up in partnership with America’s second oldest alcohol and drug treatment provider Brighton Hospital, and will serve the “entire Islamic Middle East”, a statement by the health provider said on Thursday.
Over the past decade, the numbers of Saudis and Muslims in the Gulf who have become addicted to drugs and alcohol has tripled, Mohammed Al-Turaiki, CEO of Saudi Care for Rehabilitation and Health Care said.
“It has become a serious problem, and the demand for a facility like this to serve the Islamic world as a whole is very great,” he said.
Al-Turaiki said the partnership would build a further five satellite treatment facilities in the kingdom once the Riyadh centre is built.
Brighton Hospital is the largest US faith-based health system.
Design and construction of the tentatively named Saudi Care Brighton Hospital is expected to begin later this year.
It will have 230 general inpatient beds, 20 intensive care beds and an emergency department, the statement said.
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