Translated by Sabrin Qadah 

RAMALLAH- a series of intensive meetings began today in the Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, "PECDAR", which is supposed to last for two days, between the crews of PECDAR, the Ministry of Health, the company in charge of designing Khaled Hassan Center Building for the treatment of cancer and tumors, as well as a group of architects and professional engineers from the private sector to discuss a range of important points regarding the design of the center.

Yesterday saw the signing of consulting and design contract for the first cancer center in Palestine, which a coalition of the Jordanian Dar Al Omran with the British company (John COOPER) and the Palestinian Center for Engineering and Planning has got after competition, at a cost of $2.5 million.

Today’s meeting is considered as a brainstorming between specialists in various medical and engineering fields, to set the main lines of hospital design and harmonize medical needs and necessities of engineering with comfort of patients. The Coalition in charge of design presented three architect schemes as options for the preliminary design, after visiting the land piece dedicated to the Hospital.

The head of PECDAR D. Mohammed Shtayyeh said during the signing of the contract that President Mahmoud Abbas allocated a plot of 20 acres in the town of Surda near Ramallah for the establishment of the center, noting that Khalid Hasan center should be a milestone in the health sector in Palestine.

Shtayyeh called on designers to accelerate the completion of designs to complete the project in record time, while the company said it needs about seven months to complete designs. He said there was a grant from the Islamic Development Bank to cover most of the first phase of the establishment of Khalid Hassan Center for the treatment of cancer and bone marrow costs, which is allocated for design and consulting services, valued at $2 million.

After it starts operating, the center will reduce medical referrals costs that strain the government's budget, end the suffering of cancer patients who go through hardness in occupation hospitals, and the complexities of obtaining medical referrals.

The center will be in the first phase with a capacity of 200 beds, and will include all the sections relating to the examination and diagnosis of the disease, treatment and bone marrow transplant.