One of IHEEM’s newest Members from overseas is Chartered Engineer Khairul Shah Zainal, who has been employed by Qatar Petroleum since 2008, and is currently senior project engineer on the SIDRA Medical Research Centre (SMRC) project in Doha in Qatar.
The SIDRA project is seeing the construction of what is said to be the region’s first academic medical centre. Qatar Petroleum is both a funder, and a sponsor, of the Centre.The strikingly modern building, a combination of steel, glass, and ceramic tiling, will incorporate three atriums as indoor healing gardens that patients will be able to see from their rooms, water features, and an art collection. Three “hospitals within a hospital” will cater for children, women, and adults. Designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli and Ellerbe Becket, the facility will include a biomedical research centre connected to the main building by en enclosed walkway. The Centre, which the designers say will be “all digital”, being “wireless, filmless and virtually paperless”, will feature around 380 beds, and will cost US$ 2.7 bn to build. The target completion date is late 2012. Khairul Zainal, who has been working on the project as a client representative for Qatar Foundation (PMCM), said: “This SMRC project will deliver worldclass patient care. At the project’s heart is the vision that the centre will be a truly world-class healthcare facility, with state-of-the-art clinical services and an environment able to attract the world’s best healthcare talent. I would say that, at present, SMRC could be considered one of the most expensive healthcare projects under construction worldwide.” Having graduated from London’s Middlesex Polytechnic in 1991 with a Civil Engineering degree, Khairul Zainal spent the early part of his career developing and managing hospital projects in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Qatar, working for companies including TCB Ibrahim, Perunding Juruwas of Malaysia, and piling specialist Bauer, before joining Qatar Petroleum.
