CEO Today Middle East Awards

the disease is yet to be known, both in Bahrain and on an international level. Allaying public fears through education and following clinically proven methods of hand hygiene and avoiding unnecessary travel to places where there is a high prevalence of the disease are all relevant and sensible measures. As a healthcare facility, we are constantly evaluating our preparedness to deal with what emerges. What motivates you every day? I am passionate about the delivery of the highest quality of healthcare to all our patients. As a physician with nearly 30 years of clinical experience, I have seen how healthcare can fail the very people it is meant to serve. Money and an ability to pay should never be the reason for anyone not to receive the standard of care they deserve to receive in a healthcare facility. What does this award mean to you? Service in healthcare is never a job but a calling. This award recognises several unnamed faces that are the part of the big team that makes us who we are. On behalf of our patients and our staff, it is a recognition for the work we have done for over 120 years. The American Mission Hospital The American Mission Hospital (AMH) is the oldest hospital in the GCC. Its origins date back to 1893 when Samuel Zwemer, a Missionary Pastor from the Reformed Church in America stepped foot on the shores of Bahrain. He quickly realised that healthcare was the most pressing need of the people of the Kingdom which he was ill-equipped to provide. Along with his wife Amy, a nurse, they set up the first clinic in the Suq in Manama in 1895. The call for Physicians went back to the US, funds were raised and the first missionary doctors arrived in 1900 with the first hospital opened in 1902 on land donated by the Amir of Bahrain His Highness the late Sheikh Ali Al Khalifa. After establishing a hospital in Bahrain, the Missionary doctors also travelled to Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia providing medical care. They established a hospital in Kuwait and Oman and the doctors regularly travelled to Riyadh, providing medical care to the members of the Royal Court in Saudi Arabia. Many family members including children of the missionaries died due to the very diseases they were treating. It was on the sacrifices of these missionaries that the long-standing relationship between the Royal Court in Bahrain and the Reformed church was established long before oil was discovered. From its humble beginnings, AMH has provided uninterrupted medical care to the people of Bahrain and beyond. Despite the development of modern public and private hospitals, AMH continues its mission of providing high- quality healthcare at an affordable cost for all sections of society, being the only not-for-profit hospital in the region. AMH has witnessed the transformation of the region and despite the growth of the public and private healthcare sector, remains an important and trusted provider of healthcare to the people of Bahrain. AMH and its satellite branches are in every governorate of Bahrain and are expanding by building a new state-of-the-art, 100-bed futuristic hospital as part of a new digitised healthcare eco-system for the people of Bahrain. 35 CEO TODAY MIDDLE EAST AWARDS 2020 Banking