After almost 50 years of serving and catering to the health needs of citizens and expatriate communities in Eastern Province, and having expanded from a mere 50 beds to now 500, the government-owned Dammam Central Hospital has changed its name to Dammam Medical Complex. The change is to emphasize that it is now a health institution equipped with most modern, world-class facilities. A six-floor multi-million medical tower has been recently inaugurated. It houses medical facilities and specialized units, such as TB Center, Physiotherapy Unit, Ophthalmology Center, Dental Center and Emergency Unit. A special section for sick prisoners is also provided. Because of the growing number of deaths from the expatriate communities, the morgue has been expanded as well to accommodate 100 corpses at a time. The medical complex is the only hospital in the region which has the facility to embalm corpses. Construction of additional buildings to accommodate other medical specialties is now underway. Two separate centers, built with support from private business sector, are already operating. These are Al-Babtain Cardiac Center, which now conducts open-heart surgery and is one of the most modern in the region, and Kanoo Kidney Center. Both centers provide patients with excellent facilities and care. Dammam Medical Complex has now about 2000 staff members, including 400 doctors and 600 nurses. __
