The Ministry of Health inaugurated the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Kidney Dialysis Center in the Ahmadi Health District following a donation from the heirs of the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. The facility is projected to serve about 500 hemodialysis patients and 100 peritoneal dialysis patients once it reaches full capacity. This project continues the family’s longstanding contributions to Kuwait’s healthcare system, including an earlier kidney dialysis center at Al-Jahra Hospital that opened in 2013 during the tenure of former Health Minister Mohammad Barak Al-Haifi and ranked among the largest ministry-affiliated units at the time.
The new center comprises 83 dialysis units, 11 of them isolation rooms, along with four peritoneal dialysis rooms, a biochemistry laboratory, blood collection facilities, procedure and emergency rooms, patient examination areas, a central pharmacy, nutrition clinics, social services and administrative offices. It stands on 2,650 square meters of land with a total building area of 10,250 square meters spread across a basement, ground floor and three upper levels. The Ahmadi Health District currently cares for 519 dialysis patients, 449 of whom receive hemodialysis, underscoring the local demand that prompted the expansion.
Minister of Health Dr. Ahmed Al-Awadhi highlighted the importance of accessibility during the inauguration ceremony. He clarified that healthcare quality hinges not only on treatment availability but also on patients’ ability to obtain services at the right time and place. The center advances the ministry’s phased development of kidney services that began with the Mohammad Al-Khuzam Dialysis Center at Al-Adan Hospital in 2009 and continued through newer units opened in 2024 at the Ali Sabah Al-Salem Center and the Sabah Al-Ahmad Center.
Sheikh Fahad Al-Jaber, speaking as representative of the donors, said the project reflects values of compassion and humanity while acting as a means of seeking reward from God. “One of the most beautiful acts of charity is for a person to contribute to alleviating the suffering of another and instilling hope in his heart,” he stated. The donation revives the name of the late Amir through a larger-scale initiative more than 13 years after the Al-Jahra center, reinforcing the family’s commitment to supporting continuous treatment needs.
Charitable health projects have supplemented public services for decades, exemplified by the Hamad Abdullah Al-Saqer Specialized Health Center in Adailiya that opened in 2000 through a KD2 million donation from Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Saqer and his brother Jassim Hamad Al-Saqer. That facility delivers general medicine, pediatrics, diabetes care, emergency services, radiology, laboratories, dentistry, preventive health, ENT, surgery, orthopedics, school health and oncology. The latest dialysis center aligns with the ministry’s ongoing efforts to reduce patient wait times, shorten travel distances and integrate support services that form part of patients’ regular routines.
