A prototype of a flying hospital designed and made in Saudi Arabia was featured at the Third Annual Conference of Medical Services of Military Services. The conference was inaugurated yesterday by Assistant Minister of Defense and Aviation Prince Khalid bin Sultan at the King Faisal Hall in Riyadh.

The two-bed flying hospital is fully equipped with all facilities, including an intensive care unit. It weighs about four tons, and can be assembled quickly and transported anywhere in the world as needed. It can also transport patients between any of the Kingdom’s hospitals within two hours.

The hospital is scheduled to be launched on a C-130 plane at the end of February, said Maj. Gen. Kitab Al-Otaibi, director general of the armed forces medical services department. He added that it is the first of eight such hospitals, which the Kingdom hopes to have functional by the end of 2006.

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