AN IRISH company has won a multi-million euro contract to develop a national health regulatory authority for the Kingdom of Bahrain.
International Development Ireland (IDI), a Dublin-based consulting firm, secured the US$7 million (€5.1 million) contract to build regulatory structures to govern public and private healthcare in the tiny Persian Gulf state.
With a population of just over one million, 49 per cent of whom are expatriates, the Bahrain government is seeking to improve the quality of healthcare on the island and drive further economic growth by strengthening regulation.
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has run a medical university in the country since 2004.
A board appointed by the Bahraini ministry of health last year visited Ireland and a number of other countries, meeting pharmaceutical, nursing and medical bodies to examine their regulatory practices.
Following the visit, Bahrain’s government invited IDI to tender for the contract of setting up a regulatory structure to govern the country’s health service.
Speaking about the contract, Ted Bowe, executive director of the IDI, said, “Our role is to set up a single health regulatory authority in Bahrain covering all areas. It is quite an ambitious idea and it hasn’t really got many precedents.
“Ireland has a multitude of different regulatory authorities governing health – they are looking at one overall authority that will cover both the private and the public health sectors,” said Mr Bowe.
A team comprising health management, regulatory and medical experts from Ireland and other countries began work in Bahrain this month.
“Bahrain wants international standards of regulation. Like all health sectors, it’s highly politicised and there are a lot of vested interests, so one would not underestimate the challenge,” said Mr Bowe.
The company will be recruiting a number of Irish health management and regulatory professionals to travel to Bahrain in the coming months.
