Gulf Construction Online - Hospital design makes debut at health show

UAE Focus

Hospital design makes debut at health show

01 September 2003

An exhibition dedicated to hospital design and interiors is to make its debut next year, alongside a leading hospital medical equipment and services show and conference in the UAE.

Hospital Design and Interiors (HDI) will make its debut alongside Arab Health, which will run at Dubai International Exhibition Centre (DIEC) from January 18 to 21.
The stand-alone show is being added to help meet the expanding Middle East demand for the latest hospital and interior design principals, says IIR Exhibitions and Conferences, the organiser of Arab Health.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a major conference focusing on the project management of refurbishing facilities and complete turnkey new facilities.
''Gone are the days of grey vinyl floors, cheap plastic seats, stress-inducing clinical smells and noisy hospital trolleys,'' says an IIR spokesman. ''Good hospital design is now all about easing patient and visitor anxiety and distress. It is also about making the bottom line healthier by providing more for less while, at the same time, improving the quality and sophistication of the service. The rapid growth in the healthcare sector across the Middle East is providing the construction sector with a key growth market.''
He continues: 'The private healthcare sector is seeing a huge growth and a dramatic increase in the number of facilities being built across the region. The public sector is investing heavily in new facilities and the refurbishment/expansion of older facilities.
According to Rick Drake, of US-based RTKL Associates, which specialises in healthcare facility design, there is significant economic benefit in customer-orientated design, which in the healthcare context means patient-focused care. ''New healthcare facilities thoughtfully designed, after careful study of clinical care processes, nursing techniques and current care practices, have demonstrated a significant impact in lowering the cost of providing care,'' Drake says.
''HDI is aimed at bringing care providers and healthcare executives from the public and private sectors together with facility planners and managers, designers, architects and contractors, within a forum that showcases the most progressive developments in healthcare design,'' says John Hassett, exhibitions director, healthcare division, IIR Exhibitions and Conferences.
''There will be more healthcare facilities built in the region this year than hotels and the industry should also look at these facilities as huge hotels with specific needs. Facility and environment design are growing in importance as the healthcare market becomes more competitive. The environment within healthcare buildings and the proper planning, construction and equipping of the right types of amenities is shown to have a measurable effect on the quality of patient treatment and on hospital performance.
Among the sectors that will be represented at HDI will be hospital and healthcare architectural design; project management; hospital furniture and interiors, including partition systems, cubicle screens, enclosures, sanitary ware, aids for the disabled, specialist ceilings, wall and flooring materials; building materials; lighting designers and equipment; hospital catering equipment; infrastructure providers, including plumbing, heating and cooling, electrical, environmental and energy; patient technologies, including entertainment; network technology and IT infrastructure; hospital equipment planning and procurement; maintenance services; waste management products and services; water treatment equipment; hospital cleaning systems and products; healthcare and construction cost consultants; hospital consultants and hospital engineering services.
Jack Eicher, planning services manager at Herman Miller International, a global market leader in the interior design of work places and one of the companies already confirmed at the event, says the exhibition will help create heightened awareness of the vital role good ergonomics play in hospital and medical centre design.
HDI joins a series of vertical segments, which have helped drive the growth of Arab Health and cement its reputation as the Middle East's leading healthcare exhibition and conference.
Arab Health is the region's premier healthcare event that fills all eight halls of the exhibition centre with 1,250 exhibitors and is attended by 19,000 healthcare and facility decision makers.
The size and scope of the show is now on a par with any international counterpart and the market it is serving, worth around $74 billion is one of the largest in the world, says Hassett.